The Pentagon on Tuesday continued to defend a “double tap” boat strike earlier this year, while also downplaying Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s role in it as lawmakers scrutinize the U.S. attack that killed 11 people at sea.Both the Pentagon and the White House have absolved Hegseth of any wrongdoing in the back-to-back strikes the U.S. military carried out Sept. 2 on a Venezuelan boat off Trinidad’s coast. After two people aboard managed to survive the first strike, SEAL Team 6 was ordered to launch a second strike to wipe them out.The strikes were the focus of last week’s explosive Washington Post report, which said Hegseth ordered the Joint Special Operations Command to “kill everybody” on what he said was a drug smuggling boat. The head of JSOC at the time, Adm. Frank Bradley, reportedly carried out the order.Hegseth has denied the accuracy of the Post’s report, though he continues to defend U.S. attacks on boats in international waters despite public and congressional concerns that the operations amount to war crimes. Hegseth and his department also say he was unaware of the second strike Bradley had carried out until hours later.“The decision to restrike the narcoterrorist vessel was made by Adm. Bradley, operating under clear and longstanding authorities to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States was eliminated,” Pentagon spokesperson Kingsley Wilson told reporters on Tuesday.“Secretary Hegseth stands behind Adm. Bradley 100%,” she continued. “Adm. Bradley made the right call.”While claiming to “have the back” of Bradley and other commanders, Hegseth distanced himself from the strikes that a bipartisan group of lawmakers has condemned for lack of oversight, suggesting he was not making the judgment calls in the attacks.During Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump, Hegseth said that the U.S. military has “only just begun striking narco boats and putting narcoterrorists at the bottom of the ocean.”“As President Trump always has our back, we always have the back of our commanders who are making decisions in difficult situations, and we do in this case and all these strikes,” Hegseth said. “They’re making judgment calls ensuring they defend the American people. They’ve done the right things, they’ll keep doing that, and we’ll have their backs.”One month after the September strikes, Bradley was promoted to run the U.S. Special Operations Command, which oversees JSOC. Wilson said Tuesday that the U.S. military has killed at least 82 people in its targeted attacks on small boats since the September operation.Some lawmakers said that they have yet to receive information that would legally justify the Pentagon going over Congress’ head to strike a boat that has been accused, without evidence, of smuggling drugs to the U.S., calling for “vigorous oversight” and an investigation.CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misstated Adm. Frank Bradley’s name.Close