No Trump cabinet official faced more media smears than Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
But Hegseth almost reached his breaking point.
And Pete Hegseth survived a fake news attack by the skin of his teeth, thanks to one surprising act.
As American Media Watch Dog reports:
The Washington Post kicked off a media feeding frenzy with a story about a September 2 missile strike against a drug-running boat in the Caribbean.
In the story, the Post claimed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth gave a “kill everyone” order that led to a second round of missile strikes on the vessel after the first failed to destroy the boat.
The Post claimed the second strike killed two survivors clinging to the wreckage for dear life.
Democrats and the media howled that Hegseth committed a war crime and fantasized about impeaching and imprisoning him.
But the Post’s story quickly collapsed.
Navy Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley briefed members of Congress that Hegseth never gave a “kill everyone” order.
Bradley told Congress that he ordered the second strike and did so after consultation with a Navy JAG officer providing legal advice.
Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton used these facts to demolish Meet the Press host Kristen Welker’s attempt to spin the Post’s false narrative into the media’s new “worse than Watergate” scandal.
“The order, like the entire operation, Kristen, is to destroy these drug boats which are running drugs into our country from foreign drug cartels and traffickers that are killing hundreds of Arkansans every year and killing hundreds of thousands of Americans,” Cotton began.
Cotton said the strikes on narco terrorist boats were conducted based on actionable intelligence and legal advice.
“Of course, before our military conducts such a strike, they have multiple sources of intelligence. They give high confidence that everyone on that boat is a foreign drug trafficker, not an innocent civilian who is being human trafficked, for instance. Secretary Hegseth and I agree they’re all valid targets,” Cotton added.
Cotton then addressed the Post’s story.
“This controversy all started with The Washington Post story nine days ago that said after the first strike, there were two survivors who were helpless, and then they were ordered to kill the helpless survivors,” Cotton stated.
Cotton slammed the Post for presenting a misleading accounting of invents and demanded that the Post apologize to Hegseth, Admiral Bradley, and the military for slandering them now that the facts were out.
“That is simply not the case. They were not floating in the ocean on a wooden plank or in life jackets; they were not on a capsized vessel. They were not incapacitated in any way. It was entirely appropriate to strike the boat again to make sure the cargo was destroyed, and it is in no way a violation of the law of war. I think The Washington Post owes Secretary Hegseth and especially Admiral Bradley an apology for that slander,” Cotton concluded.
