MS NOW’s Morning Joe crew warned that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth may have “put himself” in “dangerous” legal peril by “bragging” about a strike mission on a suspected narco-trafficking boat after reports he ordered SEAL Team 6 to “kill everybody” aboard and then allegedly struck survivors in the water.
The Washington Post reported Sunday that the September mission, part of a Trump administration push against Venezuelan drug routes, escalated after a drone spotted two survivors clinging to the wreckage, prompting a second strike. Unnamed officials told the paper such an action could constitute a war crime. Nearly 20 similar operations have reportedly followed.
Following the reporting Hegseth took to X:
President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One Sunday night that Hegseth denied giving the order and said that he believed him.
On Morning Joe on Monday, host Joe Scarborough said Hegseth’s public posture was making matters worse: “Pete Hegseth, Republicans bragging about the kill strikes, killing everybody in the waters. Right now, it’s a dangerous time legally for Pete Hegseth.”
He warned that any attempt by the Pentagon chief to “cover it up” would only deepen the peril: “This genie is out of the bottle… the evidence is there and there’s no circling back.”
Scarborough continued that both Armed Services Committees are now gathering details, saying investigators are “getting the details,” and pointed to the Pentagon’s unusual clampdown on independent press access: “Doesn’t matter that you’ve you now are only letting people like Chinese religious cults cover your Pentagon and that you’ve kicked out all the real news services. The Washington Post – the much maligned, let us say, Washington Post over the past six months – broke this story. And the evidence is there. The names are there.”
The host followed that the reporting came after Democratic lawmakers released a video urging military service members to refuse “illegal orders.” The video was met with backlash from the Trump administration, with the president accusing the Democrats of “seditious behavior.”
“Three months after these kill strikes and the kill orders, the alleged kill orders, they knew what was going on, and it’s hard not to believe that’s not the reason they put that out,” Scarborough noted.
Co-host Jonathan Lemire added: “And that would certainly explain Secretary Hegseth’s really over-the-top reaction to the video. Perhaps he knew this was –”
“Saying to ‘execute them’ after, as [Fox News contributor] Andy McCarthy said, if the reporting is right, that Pete Hegseth –” Scarborough interrupted, before co-host Mika Brzezinski added: “Seems rather trigger-happy.”
Scarborough followed: “– who has put himself in an extraordinarily dangerous legal situation.”
Lemire underscored the gravity: Japanese soldiers who conducted similar attacks on U.S. sailors in World War II were later “convicted and executed” for war crimes.
“That’s how serious this is,” he said.
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