Admiral: We Had No 'Kill Them All' Order

The military commander responsible for ordering a missile strike on survivors of an earlier drug boat strike was defending his decision-making Thursday to lawmakers in a closed session on Thursday, and a few early developments have surfaced:

• No 'kill' order: Admiral Frank "Mitch" Bradley told lawmakers that Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth did not issue a "kill them all" order before the mission began, reports the AP. Bradley "was very clear that he was given no such order, to give no quarter or to kill them all," said Sen. Tom Cotton, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, as he exited a classified briefing. The first report about the controversy suggested otherwise, saying Hegseth gave a verbal order to that effect.

• 'Deeply troubling:' A Democratic House member said he was concerned after watching video of the second strike. "I reviewed the video, and it's deeply, deeply troubling," said Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, per the Hill. "The fact is that we killed two people who were in deep distress and had neither the means nor obviously the intent to continue their mission." (The last part seems to directly contradict the expected testimony of Bradley.)