Admiral tells lawmakers there was no ‘kill them all’ order in attack that killed drug boat survivors

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Navy admiral told lawmakers Thursday that there was no “kill them all” order from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as Congress scrutinizes an attack that killed two survivors of an initial strike on an alleged drug boat in international waters near Venezuela.

Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley “was very clear that he was given no such order, to give no quarter or to kill them all. He was given an order that, of course, was written down in great detail,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, as he exited a classified briefing.

Cotton defended the attack, but a Democrat who also was briefed said that while there was no “kill them all” order from Hegseth, he was still deeply concerned by video of the second strike.

“What I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service,” Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters. “You have two individuals in clear distress without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel were killed by the United States.”

Bradley was joined at the Capitol by Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for sessions that came at a potentially crucial moment in the unfolding congressional investigation into how Hegseth handled the military operation in international waters near Venezuela. There are mounting questions over whether the strike may have violated the law.

Lawmakers want a full accounting of the strikes after The Washington Post reported that Bradley on Sept. 2 ordered an attack on two survivors to comply with Hegseth’s directive to “kill everybody.” Legal experts say the attack amounts to a crime if the survivors were targeted, and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are demanding accountability.

Among those briefed were the leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services committees and the Intelligence Committee in each chamber. Most of the lawmakers in the briefings declined to comment as they exited.

Congress is seeking answers to questions such as what orders Hegseth gave regarding the operations and what the reasoning was for the second strike.