Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was scrutinized on two fronts Thursday: congressional questioning over a Sept. 2 strike on an alleged drug-running vessel in the Caribbean and a Pentagon watchdog’s finding that he used the encrypted app Signal to discuss U.S. strikes in Yemen from a personal phone.
Lawmakers were shown video during private briefings with Navy Adm. Frank M. Bradley, the Special Operations commander who led the mission. The footage, which included the boat strike, prompted sharply different reactions from members of both parties. Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) said he was deeply disturbed, describing images of two people in obvious distress near a destroyed boat and invoking Defense Department guidance that attacking shipwrecked people is prohibited. Himes said the clip suggested U.S. forces struck shipwrecked individuals.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), an Armed Services Committee member, offered a contrasting interpretation, saying the video showed two survivors attempting to right a drug-loaded boat to continue their operation. Cotton said multiple strikes occurred within minutes, called the actions lawful and said he found nothing distressing in what he saw.
The briefings added detail to an operation that has raised legal and ethical questions, including whether the strikes complied with U.S. law or could implicate international law under the administration’s declared campaign against narcotraffickers.
President Trump told reporters he was unaware of a second strike and that he had not been personally involved. Hegseth said he authorized the initial strike but did not approve subsequent strikes; he defended the decision to sink the vessel and backed Bradley’s choices, saying he watched the first strike live and then moved on to other duties. Bradley, according to both Cotton and Himes, told lawmakers he had not been ordered to kill everyone on board.
Democratic leaders pressed for greater transparency. Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he still had serious legal questions about the series of strikes off Venezuela and urged strict compliance with the laws of war to protect U.S. personnel. Reed and other Democrats have sought release of the full footage. The president said he would consider releasing video but expressed uncertainty about what was recorded and defended the anti‑drug campaign, asserting that disabling each boat reduces drug flow and saves American lives.
Separately, the Pentagon Inspector General released an 84-page report concluding that Hegseth violated department policy by using Signal on his personal phone to discuss planned U.S. airstrikes in Yemen. The investigation, led by Inspector General Steven Stebbins after requests from top Armed Services Committee members and prompted by a March account that a journalist had been added to an officials’ Signal group chat, found that Hegseth transmitted sensitive operational details over an unapproved commercial messaging service.
According to the report, he shared nonpublic DoD information—including the number of manned aircraft and estimated strike times—about two to four hours before operations. The IG warned that using a personal device and an unapproved app risked exposing sensitive data and could jeopardize personnel and missions.
Hegseth declined an in-person interview for the probe and submitted a written statement asserting that the material he shared was not classified. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the findings amounted to a full exoneration and reiterated that no classified information was disclosed. NPR discloses that its CEO, Katherine Maher, serves as chair of the Signal Foundation.