Press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed the apparent war crime was legal even as she said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth knew nothing about it.
The White House on Monday shifted the blame for killing the survivors of a U.S. military strike on an alleged drug smuggling boat from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and onto the commanding admiral.
Killing survivors of a destroyed vessel is literally an example of a war crime in the U.S. Department of Defense Law of War Manual. “For example, orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal,” the manual reads.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt, nevertheless, repeatedly stated that it was legal – even as she further claimed, as Donald Trump did Sunday, that Hegseth was unaware that it had happened.
I mean, probably nothing. Its not like anyone is going to investigate or prosecute. Trump's just throwing up chaff so he can whine about the press treating him unfairly. "We didn't do it, but if we did it would have been based and cool, and don't think we won't do the thing we didn't do again if we feel like it" is exactly what I'd have expected to hear from a PR flack in the Bush or Reagan Era.