Thursday on CNN’s “News Central,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) said while he was relieved to hear Secretary of War Pete Hegseth did not give an order to “kill everybody,” he said it was “very questionable” that the survivors of the September boat strike in the Caribbean could have been considered to still be in the fight.
Bacon said, “I was relieved to know that the secretary did not give those orders to say, kill everybody, kill the survivors. That was the initial reporting in The Washington Post. So I think that was positive for the secretary. I think it’s still debatable to me that you should target two people or trying to survive in the water. I know the military is saying that they were radioing in to be rescued by their drug colleagues. They were trying to save some of the drugs, but still, I am also troubled to, you know, these two people were trying to survive, and our rules of law or rules of war would not allow us to to kill survivors.”
Host Brianna Keilar said, “The Defense Department, this case they’re making here is that they were still in the fight. I think that’s the question that these folks who were survivors were still in the fight because they appeared to be radioing for help. They could have theoretically continued trafficking the drugs. Do you think that’s the case? Were they still in the fight?”
Bacon said, “I think it’s very questionable. I think we’re definitely in a gray area here. To be candid with you the rules are they have to pose an imminent threat. And I think we could say they did not pose an imminent threat to our country. ”
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