Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faced backlash after declaring the Pentagon had “absolute and complete authority” to bomb a suspected Venezuelan drug vessel, but then offering no legal basis to back up that claim about the Donald Trump-ordered deadly strike that killed 11 people.
A reporter pressed Hegseth on Thursday: “What legal authority did the Pentagon invoke to strike that boat full of drug smugglers?”
Hegseth shot back: “We have the absolute and complete authority to conduct that.”
But he did not cite any law or mechanism granting such authority.
He continued:
