Updated on: November 30, 2025 / 5:30 PM EST / CBS News
Washington — Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said Sunday that a reported U.S. follow-on strike on an alleged drug smuggling boat earlier this year “rises to the level of a war crime if it’s true.”
“If that reporting is true, it’s a clear violation of the DoD’s own laws of war, as well as international laws about the way you treat people who are in that circumstance,” Kaine told Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.
The Washington Post reported Friday that during the U.S.’s first strike on a suspected drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean on Sept. 2, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a verbal order to leave no survivors. According to the Post, a follow-on strike was then ordered, killing two survivors in the water. Hegseth called the reporting “fabricated, inflammatory and derogatory,” saying operations in the Caribbean are “lawful under both U.S. and international law.” CBS News has not independently confirmed the Post’s reporting.
Targeting civilians or wounded members of armed forces is prohibited under the Geneva Conventions, which also require the wounded to be “collected and cared for.” A group of former military lawyers said in an assessment Saturday that the reported second strike would violate international or domestic law. Leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services committees have pledged to investigate.
Aboard Air Force One on Sunday, President Trump said, “First of all, I don’t know that that happened, and Pete [Hegseth] said he didn’t even know what people were talking about. So, we’ll look into it. But no, I wouldn’t have wanted that, a second strike. The first strike was very lethal. It was fine. If there were two people around — but Pete [Hegseth] said that didn’t happen. I have great confidence in him … I’m going to find out about it, but Pete said he didn’t order the death of those two men.”
Since the Sept. 2 strike, the U.S. has carried out nearly two dozen boat strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. Kaine said lawmakers have sought evidence that those aboard were indeed narco traffickers, questioned why the vessels were struck rather than interdicted, and pressed for the legal rationale for strikes. “We had to pry with a crowbar after weeks and weeks out of the administration, the supposed legal rationale for the strikes at international waters,” he said, calling the rationale “very shoddy.”
Kaine argued Congress must rein in a president “deciding to wage war on his own say-so.” He has twice pursued war powers resolutions to block strikes against Venezuela and said he would act immediately on a new resolution if ground action occurs. The administration has increased pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and President Trump posted on Truth Social Saturday that Venezuela’s airspace should be considered “CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.”
Rep. Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican on the Armed Services Committee, said Sunday that “Congress does not have information” the reported follow-on strike occurred. “If that occurred, that would be very serious, and I agree that that would be an illegal act,” Turner added.
Caitlin Yilek contributed to this report.
