Democrat Senator Tammy Duckworth accused Secretary of War Pete Hegseth of “essentially murder” as she contradicted her own claims about a video on the strike on a suspected drug boat.
The Illinois lawmaker and combat veteran seethed with disgust for Hegseth, also a combat veteran with two Bronze Stars for his service, as she spoke on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, blasting the operation in the Caribbean in which a suspected drug-carrying vessel was struck twice. Duckworth claimed the alleged drug traffickers in the boat “were not even aimed at the United States.”
(Video Credit: CNN)
“So, everything that they have done has been illegal. It’s illegal under international law. It’s illegal under the Geneva Convention. And it certainly is even illegal under domestic law,” Duckworth told CNN host Dana Bash. “It was essentially murder with that double-tap strike.”
Bash remarked that the lawmaker was making “a very strong statement, murder. Does that constitute a war crime?”
“It is a war crime. It’s illegal. However you put it, it’s all illegal,” Duckworth responded.
“Senator, have you seen the video?” Bash asked, referring to footage on the September 2 strike.
“I have seen the video, and it is deeply disturbing,” Duckworth replied before ripping into Hegseth as the “least qualified secretary of defense” in American history.
“I just want to make sure that I get this accurate — you have seen the classified video of this particular strike, the first strike, and then the double tap, as it’s known?” Bash pressed the senator, who then appeared to walk back her previous claim.
“No, I have just seen what’s been available in the media,” Duckworth clarified, adding that she “read the full report, but I have not seen the actual video.”
She railed about the “laws of war” and insisted that the Trump administration violated those laws with the second strike on the boat.
“Look, I have been shot down behind enemy lines,” said Duckworth, who lost both legs and partial use of her right arm in Iraq in 2004.
“Under the laws of war, if a pilot bails out, he gets shot down, he bails out, he’s in a rubber dinghy in the middle of the ocean, under all the international laws of warfare, you are supposed to help render aid to that individual,” she told Bash.
“And so everything that they did here was illegal. In fact, the two survivors were clinging to half of a boat in the middle of the ocean and had no access to a radio, per the admiral’s briefing. And so, yes … the whole operation is illegal to begin with,” she added.
Social media users blasted the Democrat for her remarks and claims about seeing the classified video.
All. They. Do. Is. Lie.
— Nurse Patriot (@LABeachGal1) December 7, 2025
Watch Duckworth smile fade once she is asked point blank “I just want to make sure…you have seen the classified video…”. Duckworth thinks that the narrative is going great, until that point.
— OurVoicesWILLNOTBeSilenced (C) 2022 #IAmCharlie (@cgosselinaikens) December 7, 2025
Shocking, CNN actually did legit reporting and asking hard questions.
— NewbombTurk 🇺🇸 (@BurnFBDown) December 8, 2025
So she’s admitting that she hasn’t seen it herself, but is just parroting the party line she’s been told to say.
— Mark Walker (@markwalker5555) December 7, 2025
Democrat senator Duckworth has now stated she did NOT see the video of what she says she saw. The only standards elected democrats have is double standards.
— rick genie (@RickGenie) December 8, 2025
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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