Pete Hegseth finds his fall guy

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remains under intense scrutiny following reports that he gave a spoken order to kill survivors of a boat strike, an allegation that has since labeled Hegseth the “Secretary of War Crimes.” But it appears that amid the fallout, Hegseth has found a potential fall guy: Admiral Frank Bradley, the Special Operations commander who oversaw the September 2 strikes.

Here is Hegseth on Monday referring to the September 2 strikes as “the combat decisions [Bradley] has made,” a line many viewed as attempting to directly place blame on a subordinate.

Then again, on Tuesday: “All these strikes, they’re making judgment calls, ensuring they defend the American people,” Hegseth told reporters, saying nothing of his own role in the strikes, which have more generally been likened to extrajudicial killings.

A similar framing came from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said on Monday that Bradley “worked well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed.”

The apparent, coordinated effort to distance Hegseth from the September 2 boat strikes stems from an exclusive report from the Washington Post last week alleging that Hegseth ordered a follow-up strike on two people who had survived the initial bombing of their boat on September 2. The attack kicked off what has since exploded into an extended campaign of lethal hits on suspected drug boats from Venezuela, despite mounting evidence that casts doubt on the assertion that those killed were even trafficking drugs into the United States. According to tracking work from the New York Times, at least 80 people have been killed in 21 strikes.

Hegseth has since blasted the allegations as “fake news.” He also responded with his version of an apparent joke: a fake image of a Franklin the Turtle children’s book titled Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists, with the titular character shown in military gear, firing at targets in the sea from a helicopter. 

Kids Can Press, which has published many of the Franklin the Turtle books, condemned Hegseth’s post on Monday night, saying it contradicted its values of “kindness, empathy, and inclusivity.”

Lawmakers, including at least one top Republican, have indicated targeting shipwrecked survivors may constitute a war crime. (The Department of Defense’s own “Law of War Manual” prohibits “no quarter” declarations, which includes “conduct[ing] hostilities on the basis that there shall be no survivors.”) Republican-led committees in the House and Senate have since announced investigations into the report.

“If [the order] occurred, that would be very serious, and I agree that that would be an illegal act,” Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) and a former chair of the Intelligence Committee, said on CBS’s Face the Nation. 

“Pete Hegseth is a war criminal and should be fired immediately,” Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) posted on X. 

The timing of Hegseth’s latest scandal hits at a larger irony, as it follows a November social media video featuring six Democratic lawmakers that sought to remind military officers that they “must refuse illegal orders” and “stand up for our laws and our Constitution.” The video enraged both Hegseth and President Donald Trump, who promptly accused the Democrats, many of whom are former military or intelligence, of “seditious behavior, punishable by death.”