Monday on CNN’s “The Lead,” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) reacted to the White House confirming that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth authorized the follow-up strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean in September by calling it “incompetence at the highest level.”
Host Jake Tapper said, “They confirmed the double tap strike today, the White House, even though two days ago, Sean Parnell at the Pentagon was saying the entire story was fabricated, made up out of whole cloth. It seems as though they’re saying that Hegseth, gave the order to kill everyone on board a lethal strike and that Admiral Mitch Bradley was in charge. He’s the head of Special Forces, and that he is the one that gave the order for the second strike, the double tap on the survivors that were there. Who is ultimately responsible if there is something wrong with the double tap strike with the second strike?”
Kelly said, “I think it’s going to be really important for my committee, the Armed Services Committee that I sit on, the same thing in the House to get these people in the room and get testimony from them under oath, maybe part of it in a skiff and in a secure facility and part of it publicly to get what the exact real story is. I think this is what happens when you put an incompetent individual in perhaps the second most important job in our country, the Secretary of Defense. Pete Hegseth, had no business being nominated. Republicans in the Senate should not have confirmed him. He’s been there for less than a year now, maybe, you know, 7 or 8 months. This is the result of incompetence at the highest level.”
Follow Pam Key on X @pamkeyNEN
