What To Know
- The hosts of The View harshly criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the White House for shifting blame to Admiral Frank M. Bradley over a controversial second military strike on alleged drug traffickers near Venezuela.
- They condemned the lack of accountability and transparency from leadership.
- The cohosts demanded evidence that the victims were actually drug traffickers.
The View‘s cohosts — namely, Whoopi Goldberg, Sara Haines, Joy Behar, and Sunny Hostin (since Alyssa Farah Griffin was absent without any on-air explanation as to why) — went absolutely ballistic over the latest reporting involving Pete Hegseth. The defense secretary is once again in hot water over the targeting of migrant boaters accused of being drug traffickers, with a second strike conducted against the survivors of the first, near Venezuela.
“There’s a new plot twist in the alleged narco boat strike, and some people are calling it a war crime. Defense Secretary Hegseth and the White House now confirmed there was a second strike, but it wasn’t Pete who ordered it,” Goldberg said before introducing footage of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt naming Admiral Frank M. Bradley as the one who “gave that order.” They also reviewed footage of Delaware Senator Chris Coons suggesting Admiral Bradley was not the one who gave the order, but it was instead Hegseth himself.
In response, Goldberg said, “I do believe we said yesterday that this was exactly what they were going to do. They were going to blame the folks who worked in that plane because they knew that Pete was going to get a pardon.”
She then stood up from her chair and acted out a scene of Bradley being thrown under a bus.
After that, Hostin weighed in to say, “What’s so sad is when you’re really a leader, you take responsibility and accountability for the wins and the losses, for all the decisions that are made. That is true leadership.”
She went on to point out that if a “war crime” was committed, Hegseth, the admiral, and others would be legally responsible for it. “The lack of accountability from the top is despicable. It’s disgusting,” she added.
Haines was also miffed about the news, saying, “The most weaselly part is … did you notice how legal that announcement was? Karoline Leavitt normally runs those pretty loose … that whole thing is language that was specific to this moment, which means they kind of know they might be in hot water. But I thought the worst part was how they blame it on the admiral, but then said, ‘But it’s fine.’ Why not just defend your stance?” She also questioned whether the act was a war crime or simply “murder.”
Hostin then noted that the stated justification for the strikes was that there was a “war on crime,” but added, “What they are actually doing is they’re using the military for a law enforcement function. When there is a drug problem going on, what you generally do is you send DEA agents and you send local law enforcement into the United States of America, into whatever town is happening. You don’t start flying military planes over international waters and bombing people.”
Haines then criticized Donald Trump‘s pardon of Juan Hernandez, the former president of Honduras, who was convicted of drug trafficking. “That guy gets a pass because he has money, and he has power, and that guy is going to be let out while these worker bees on these boats are just blown up?” she said.
Hostin then demanded proof that the targets of the attack were drug traffickers at all. “Eleven people died during that strike… Eighty-three people have died altogether. You mean to tell me they have evidence that all 83 of those people are drug traffickers? If that’s the case, I want to see that evidence.”
“That’s the point,” Goldberg agreed. “If you have it, there should be no reason this is happening in the dark.”
The View, weekdays, 11a/10c, ABC