White House says second deadly Venezuela strike happened, but denies Hegseth's involvement

WBUR | By Here & Now Newsroom

Published December 2, 2025 at 11:49 AM EST

The White House is contradicting earlier reports that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a verbal order to conduct a secondary strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean in September.

The strike, which killed two remaining survivors from the first offense, has drawn scrutiny from both sides of the aisle.

Here & Now‘s Peter O’Dowd speaks with NPR’s Tom Bowman for more clarification.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

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