Congressional lawmakers questioned Adm. Frank Bradley during several sessions behind closed doors on Thursday.
The inquiry stems from the disclosure by the Trump Administration of follow-up strikes during a Sept. 2 military attack in the Caribbean. Those strikes killed 11 people who were allegedly on a boat transporting drugs to the U.S.
President Donald Trump announced a "kinetic strike" in a Truth Social post and shared a 29-second video of a single strike.
However, controversy erupted following a report last week from The Washington Post alleging Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered follow-up strikes on two survivors from the initial attack, including an alleged verbal order to "kill them all". Those follow-up strikes have raised legal concerns.
International law and Pentagon manuals state that incapacitated or shipwrecked individuals deserve "respect and protection", not further strikes, unless combat operations or threats still exist.
"If they are wounded, sick, no longer in the fight, as it were, then our obligation is to give them basic protections," said Victor Hansen, a former Judge Advocate General in the U.S. Army.
During a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Hegseth said that it was Adm. Frank Bradley, who leads U.S. Special Operations Command, who ultimately gave the order to carry out the follow-up strikes.
"Admiral Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat," Hegseth said. "He sunk the boat and eliminated the threat, and it was the right call. We have his back."
The briefings come the same day the U.S. military announced another strike against an alleged drug vessel in international waters.
On Dec. 4, at the direction of @SecWar Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel in international waters operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization. Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was carrying illicit narcotics and… pic.twitter.com/pqksvxM3HP
— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) December 4, 2025
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Bradley received bipartisan praise from lawmakers who met with him Thursday, but Democrats and Republicans were split over their reactions to video they saw of the follow-up strikes.
"What I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I've seen in my time in public service," said Democrat Rep. Jim Himes who serves as the Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee. "You have two individuals in clear distress, without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel, who were killed by the United States."
Himes noted the people who were attacked were "bad guys," who were carrying drugs, but said after the initial strike "they were not in a position to continue their mission."
The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, gave a different assessment after viewing the full video of the strikes.
"I saw two survivors trying to flip a boat loaded with drugs bound for the United States back over so they could stay in the fight," Cotton told reporters Thursday, adding that the Pentagon launched a total of four strikes on the boat.
Both Cotton and Himes said Bradley told members of Congress that he had not been given an order to "kill them all."
Video of the follow-up strikes has not been released by the Pentagon, but President Trump said Wednesday it could be made public.
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