November 30, 2025, 9:21 AM
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said Sunday he believes "it's very possible there was a war crime committed" in the administration's first strike against an alleged drug trafficking boat in the Caribbean Sea in September.
"I think it's very possible there was a war crime committed. Of course, for it to be a war crime, you have to accept the Trump administration's whole construct here ... which is we're in armed conflict, at war with this particular -- with the drug gangs. Of course, they've never presented the public with the information they've got here," Van Hollen said on ABC News' "This Week." "If that theory is wrong, then it's plain murder."
Van Hollen, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was responding to a story from The Washington Post that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had reportedly given a spoken order ahead of that Sept. 2 operation for the military to kill everybody aboard the suspected drug boat. After an initial strike left two survivors, the commander leading the operation reportedly complied with Hegseth's alleged directive by ordering a second strike, according to the report.
Hegseth defended the U.S. military's operations targeting the boats in the wake of the Post report, which ABC News has not confirmed the details of.
Van Hollen told "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl, "They have concocted this ridiculous legal theory. But even if you accept their theory that it is a war crime, and so I do believe that the secretary of Defense should be held accountable for giving those kind of orders."
"As we’ve said from the beginning, and in every statement, these highly effective strikes are specifically intended to be ‘lethal, kinetic strikes.’ The declared intent is to stop lethal drugs, destroy narco-boats, and kill the narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people. Every trafficker we kill is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization," the secretary posted on X Thursday.
The Pentagon's spokesperson said the Post story's "entire narrative was false."
In a separate interview on "This Week," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem dismissed the Post's reporting.
"I would not put any credibility to that story, to what was said," she said. "I have full faith and trust in this president and in this government to do the right thing to keep the American people safe. And I'm so grateful at the amount of work that has been done to stop those deadly drugs from getting into our country."
Both the House and Senate Armed Services committees have said they are investigating the incident. Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican who sits on the House committee, said the report was "a big concern," but also expressed skepticism Hegseth would have issued such an order.
"We should get to the truth. I don't think [Hegseth] would be foolish enough to make this decision to say, kill everybody, kill the survivors because that's a clear violation of the law of war. So, I'm very suspicious that he would've done something like that because it would go against common sense," Bacon said.
"But," he continued, "If it was as if the article said, that is a violation of the law of war. When people want to surrender, you don't kill them, and they have to pose an imminent threat. It's hard to believe that two people on a raft, trying to survive, would pose an imminent threat."
Bacon, a staunch advocate for Ukraine, also told "This Week" that he feels the White House is sending "mixed signals" on its stance about helping to end Russia's war there.
"I just don't see that moral clarity coming from the White House," Bacon said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner are meeting with Ukrainian officials to continue negotiations Sunday in Florida. Witkoff, and possibly Kushner as well, are then expected to meet with Vladimir Putin in Moscow later this week.
Bacon called the original proposed agreement that had a Thanksgiving Day deadline a "surrender document that would've left Ukraine weak and vulnerable to Russia for decades to come."
"We need moral clarity dealing with Putin. He does not want a peace agreement with Ukraine that leaves Ukraine a sovereign country," Bacon said. "He wants to control another third of Ukraine. He would like to make Ukraine a vassal state. So, I don't know why the administration keeps pursuing the pointless here. ... Putin does not want peace. The president should see it."
He said the administration should focus instead of helping Ukraine militarily and call out Putin's "evil intentions."
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