Washington Post stands by Hegseth ‘kill them all’ report despite testimony

The Washington Post stands by a report that has been facing increasing scrutiny over PentagonAlleged drug boat strike.

Secretary of the Ministry of War Pete Hegseth Adm. Mitch Bradley was inundated with war crimes accusations after The Washington Post published a report last Friday alleging that Hegseth had issued an order to “kill them all” over a September bombing of a boat allegedly transporting drugs in the Caribbean, something the Trump administration has vehemently denied.

“The Washington Post is proud of its rigorous and accurate reporting,” a newspaper spokesman said. Fox News Digital.

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The Washington Post stands by its report alleging that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth ordered no survivors left in a strike against an alleged drug boat. (Andrew Harnick/Getty Images)

The Post printed the headline Last month, “Hegseth’s order on first Caribbean boat attack, officials say: ‘Kill them all,'” he wrote. “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a verbal directive,” he wrote. According to two people with direct knowledge of the process. One of them said: “The order was to kill everyone.”

The newspaper wrote: “A missile was fired off the coast of Trinidad, hitting the ship and setting it on fire from bow to stern. For minutes, the commanders watched the boat burn on a live broadcast from a drone. As the smoke cleared, they experienced a jolt: two survivors were clinging to the burning wreckage.” “The Special Operations commander overseeing the September 2 attack — the opening strike in the Trump administration’s war on suspected drug traffickers in the Western Hemisphere — ordered a second strike in compliance with Hegseth’s instructions, two people familiar with the matter said. The two men were blown up in the water.”

The newspaper continued: “Hegseth’s order, which has not been previously reported, adds another dimension to the campaign against suspected drug traffickers. Some current and former US officials and experts on the law of war have said that the Pentagon’s deadly campaign – which has claimed more than 80 lives so far – is unlawful and those most directly involved may face prosecution in the future.”

The report says the leader of the September attack believed the survivors were continuing to use drugs

War Secretary Pete Hegseth said he left the room after ordering an initial strike on September 2 on an alleged drug boat. (Omar Havana/Getty Images)

According to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, bradley testified at Closed hearing Thursday that there was no “kill them all” order issued by Hegseth.

“Admiral Bradley was very clear that he had received no such order, neither to leave them alive nor to kill them all.” Senator Tom CottonR Ark told reporters.

“The admiral maintained that there was no order to kill them all, that there was no order to leave no one alive,” said Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn.

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Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell called on the newspaper to retract its story, calling it a “hoax” against Hegseth.

“It is an insult to the American people and everyone who wears the uniform of our country,” Parnell said on X.

US Navy Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley testified before lawmakers that he did not receive an order to “kill ’em all” from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. (Monique Stober)

Hegseth previously noted that it was Bradley who authorized additional strikes, writing in a statement to He also said that he did not see the second strike because he left the room after the first strike.

“This is called the fog of war. This is what you don’t understand in the press,” Hegseth told reporters at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. “You sit in your air-conditioned offices or up on Capitol Hill and nitpick, planting fake stories in the Washington Post about ‘kill everyone’ statements from anonymous sources that are not based on anything, that are not based on any truth at all. And then you want to get rid of the really irresponsible terms about American heroes, about the sentence they made.”

When pressed about the comments made by the lawmakers and the Pentagon’s call for retraction, a spokesperson for the newspaper referred to its statement and declined to comment further.

Lawmakers have called for investigations into the boat strikes, and some, including Sen. Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, have called on Hegseth to testify.

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A Venezuelan ship destroyed during a US military strike off Venezuela on September 2, 2025. (@realDonaldTrump via Truth Social)

Since the Washington Post report sparked a political firestorm, critics have pointed to reports from other media outlets that they say undermine what was initially alleged as well as the widely promoted narrative that war crimes were committed.

Tuesday, New York Times Her story was published under the headline, “Hegseth orders deadly attack but not kills survivors, officials say.”

“According to five U.S. officials, who spoke separately and on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter under investigation, Mr. Hegseth, before the Sept. 2 attack, ordered a strike that would kill the people on the boat and destroy the ship and its alleged drug cargo,” the Times said. books. But, each official said, Mr. Hegseth’s directive did not specifically address what should happen if the first missile turned out to not fully achieve all of those things. His order was not a response to surveillance footage showing that at least two people on the boat survived the first explosion, the officials said.

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The Times went on to report that Bradley “ordered the initial missile strike and then several subsequent strikes that killed the first survivors and sank the crippled boat,” noting that Hegseth “gave him no further orders” as the operation began.

Additionally, ABC News’ Martha Raddatz reported on Wednesday, “According to a source familiar with the incident, the two survivors re-boarded the boat after the initial strike. They are believed to have possibly been in contact with others, salvaging some drugs. Because of that, it was determined that they were still in the fight and legitimate targets. The JAG officer was also providing legal advice.”