Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has dealt with two controversies this week, as Democrats demand his resignation and Republicans leave his fate with President Trump.
Hegseth came under fire after The Washington Post reported that he ordered the military to “kill everybody” on a drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean on Sept. 2, when survivors were seen clinging to the side of the wrecked vessel after an initial strike. Navy Adm. Frank Bradley complied with the order and authorized a second attack. Hegseth later said he had to leave for a meeting before the second strike was ordered.
The White House confirmed the attack and defended the strikes as “self defense” amid its escalating rhetoric with Venezuela. Trump himself defended the attack, arguing that the “drugs coming out through sea are down 91 percent.” But both Hegseth and the White House denied that the secretary gave the “kill everybody” order.
Democratic lawmakers, including Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.), said the second strike on the survivors amount to war crimes. Thanedar said he would file articles of impeachment against Hegseth.
“This secretary has to go,” Thanedar told Fox News host Josh Breslow on Thursday. “He’s incompetent. He’s, you know, violated — he has committed war crimes. He must go.”
Bradley briefed bipartisan lawmakers in both chambers about the Sept. 2 strikes and denied Hegseth gave a “kill everybody” order, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Mo.) and Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), who were both part of the briefing with Bradley, told reporters Thursday.
“The admiral confirmed that there had not been a ‘kill them all’ order, and that there was not an order to ‘grant no quarter,’” Himes said on Thursday, but added that he was “troubled” by the attack.
Cotton defended the strikes as “entirely lawful and needful and they were exactly what we would expect our military commanders to do.”
Some Republican lawmakers questioned Hegseth’s actions, including Rep. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who wants more transparency on what the secretary’s other meeting could have been about. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) requested that Hegseth testify under oath about the orders.
Cotton is likely to be asked about the meeting with Bradley on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Then on Wednesday, the Pentagon’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) released an 84-page report on Hegseth’s role in an encrypted chat on the Signal app with other administration officials that included The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg. Hegseth and other officials discussed a possible strike on Houthi militants in Yemen, seemingly without knowing that Goldberg was in the group chat.
The report found that Hegseth jeopardized the lives of U.S. service members and violated department policy. Hegseth accused the report of being partisan, while the Department of Defense (DOD) claimed the report exonerated the Defense secretary.
Other topics likely to be discussed on Sunday’s shows include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) vaccine advisory panel voting in favor of reversing long-held guidance for newborn hepatitis B vaccinations. The vote marked a significant victory for vaccine skeptic and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has long targeted the childhood vaccine schedule.
This follows a memo obtained by The New York Times last week that said the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would issue stricter guidelines on vaccines. Several former FDA commissioners decried the decision, saying the new plan is a threat to public safety.
One of the former commissioners who wrote a letter critical of the change, Scott Gottlieb, will appear on CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” and will likely be asked about both the stricter guidelines and the change to the newborn hepatitis B vaccinations.
As the U.S. continues to mediate peace talks with Ukraine and Russia, a barrage of Russian strikes hit Ukraine on Saturday. Ukrainian forces shot down and neutralized 585 out of 653 drones and 30 out of 51 missiles.
Earlier on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky lauded his talks with special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner after a “long and substantive” call.
“We covered many aspects and went through key points that could ensure an end to the bloodshed and eliminate the threat of a new Russian full scale invasion, as well as the risk of Russia failing to honor its promises, as has happened repeatedly in the past,” Zelensky wrote on the social media platform X.
These topics and more are expected to be discussed during this week’s Sunday shows. Please see the full list of announced guests below:
NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday”: Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R), Rep. Gabe Amo (R-R.I.), former MSNBC host Chris Matthews
CBS News’s “Face the Nation”: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)
NBC’s “Meet the Press“: Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.)
CNN’s “State of the Union”: White House border czar Tom Homan, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah)
Fox News’s “Fox News Sunday“: Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Anduril Industries founder Palmer Luckey
ABC’s “This Week“: Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), former Democratic National Committee interim chair Donna Brazile, former Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R)
Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures”: Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Penn.), Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), JPMorgan Chase CEO and chairman Jamie Dimon, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)
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