Rand Paul says Pete Hegseth was 'lying to us' about boat strike or he was 'incompetent'

WASHINGTON, DC: Sen Rand Paul (R-Ky.) strongly criticized Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who defended a second military strike on survivors of an alleged boat attack this September, when Hegseth first referred to the report detailing the incident as "fake news."

The libertarian senator said Hegseth was either lying or incompetent when it came to his knowledge of the second strike.

Rand Paul questions Pete Hegseth's knowledge of second deadly strike

Sen Rand Paul sharply rebuked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, saying he was either "lying to us" about his knowledge of the second military strike or "incompetent" because he didn't know it happened.

Paul recalled that Hegseth at first dismissed the report as "fake news," stating: “Secretary Hegseth said he had no knowledge of this and it did not happen. It was fake news. It didn’t happen,” Paul said.

But the following day, a White House briefing confirmed the strike, at which point Paul concluded: “So either he was lying to us on Sunday or he's incompetent and didn't know it had happened.”

Paul clarified that he was referring to Hegseth’s Friday social media post blaming "fake news" for "delivering more fabricated, inflammatory and derogatory reporting" but stopped short of denying the specific strike details.

President Trump had described Hegseth's social media response as a denial, telling reporters, "Pete said that didn't happen, He said he didn't do it," and "He didn't even know what people were talking about."

Paul suggested he believes Hegseth was dishonest, pointedly asking: “Do we think there’s any chance that, on Sunday, the secretary of the Defense did not know there had been a second strike?”

Rand Paul condemns second strike on stranded boat survivors

The Kentucky senator expressed outrage over the military action itself, as it targeted people who survived the initial attack on the alleged boat carrying 11 individuals.

“So as a country, are we going to just let people lie to us, to our face? Are we going to let them kill people who they call enemies anytime in the world? Are we going to let them like when someone is stranded and holding on to the scraps of a boat put a second bomb on them?” asked Paul to the reporters.

He added, “I think it’s outrageous and should be universally condemned,” as he criticized Hegseth's and the administration’s handling of both the operation and the subsequent public response.

Pete Hegseth defends Admiral Bradley while distancing himself from the strike order

Reportedly, Hegseth has more recently started distancing himself from the immediate decision to order the second strike during the September 2 operation in the Caribbean.

According to reports by The Washington Post, Hegseth had issued an initial command to “kill everybody” aboard the boat, prompting Admiral Frank Bradley to issue the order for the second strike after the first attack left two survivors clinging to the wreckage.

While defending Bradley, the Navy admiral who is commander of US Special Operations Command, Hegseth said he "didn't stick around" after the first strike.

During a White House Cabinet meeting, Hegseth explained, “I watched that first strike live. As you can imagine, at the Department of War, we got a lot of things to do, so I didn’t stick around for the hour and two hours, whatever, where all the sensitive site exploitation digitally occurs. So, I moved on to my next meeting.” 

However, Hegseth did defend the subsequent action, saying: “Adm Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat. He sunk the boat and eliminated the threat,” Hegseth said. “And it was the right call. We have his back.”