Republican lawmakers are expressing exasperation with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his management of the Pentagon—with some suggesting he may not be able to keep the job even if their investigations clear him in the fatal attack on apparent survivors of a US strike in the Caribbean. Their frustration surfaced in a classified briefing for lawmakers about the strike, the Washington Post reports, when the Republican chair of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Mike Rogers, complained that the Pentagon provided Congress with more information under the Biden administration. Lawmakers said the Pentagon has not complied with their requests for video and audio recordings of the attack, for instance.
The situation wasn't helped by the Pentagon's decision to not send any lawyers to the briefing, despite the fact that a main question about the strikes is whether they're legal. Nor were the officials present able to satisfactorily explain the strategy behind the operation or its scope, participants told the Post. Hegseth has attempted to distance himself from the order for a second strike, saying it was issued by Adm. Frank Bradley. That hasn't quieted even Trump supporters so far.
"I didn't give a damn who it was … whoever knowingly violated—that was a violation of ethical, moral and legal code," GOP Sen. Thom Tillis said, per Politico. "If the facts play out the way they're currently being reported, then somebody needs to get the hell out of Washington." Bradley, head of Special Operations Command, is to go to Capitol Hill on Thursday for private meetings with Republicans and Democrats, per the Post.
- The Pentagon's watchdog found that Hegseth's texts on the Signal app put US personnel at risk.
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