MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
The Trump administration's military campaign in the Caribbean has become a political firestorm and potentially a legal one. If you're not caught up, here's a quick rundown. On September 2, the U.S. military attacked a boat in the Caribbean it claims was carrying drugs. A second strike was ordered, killing two people who survived the first one. The officer who oversaw that strike is briefing lawmakers on Capitol Hill today. Now, President Trump and his team have repeatedly dismissed accusations of war crimes. It is clear they're aware of some kind of potential fallout, and they are working to contain it. For more on that, we turn to NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez. Hey there, Franco.
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ, BYLINE: Hey, Mary Louise.
KELLY: Hey. So Admiral Frank Bradley - this is the admiral who led the operation. He's the guy who's on the Hill today getting asked all kinds of questions about this. How does he fit into the picture?
ORDOÑEZ: Well, Bradley is the admiral who was named first by the press secretary in a carefully worded statement, by the way, and then by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth as the one who specifically ordered that second strike that killed the survivors. And now he is the one, as you noted, the one facing scrutiny from lawmakers, and he's basically delivering just the latest version of how these strikes happened. And look, put aside questions about whether this is legal and whether this can be legally called a war at all. The administration has been putting out all kinds of different kinds of explanations about the strikes that have really just led to more confusion and legal uncertainty.
KELLY: Right. I mean, we do know President Trump says he wasn't involved, wasn't aware. Pete Hegseth has said he was not in the room. What do we make of all of these shifts?
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah. I mean, I think it goes to the heart of what I expect and we all expect members of Congress are really drilling down on today because it has caused so much confusion. Now, I spoke last night with Leon Panetta, the former chief of staff to Bill Clinton and defense secretary for Barack Obama. And he told me that, in operations like this, the buck stops with the president and the defense secretary. But it is clear, in this case, he says, that neither wants to take responsibility.
LEON PANETTA: So what they're doing is basically trying to play Whac-A-Mole with the different theories in the hope that people will accept what I think is a distorted series of excuses that doesn't address just exactly what happened.
ORDOÑEZ: And Panetta says that when he was defense secretary, that they would have exhaustive meetings ahead of an operation like this to plan for any kind of contingency, including what to do if there are survivors.
KELLY: All right. And whether something like that happened in this case is among the many things we don't know. Let me ask you, Franco, about consequences - how likely it is for either Secretary Hegseth or Admiral Bradley. How likely are they to face any kind of punishment, consequences, as more details come out?
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah. Trump was asked about that yesterday, and he didn't directly answer. But I think it does go back to the carefully written statement that the press secretary read earlier this week at a briefing that was kind of tacked on at the last minute, by the way. It was very choreographed. And I was speaking with Tevi Troy, who's a presidential historian and former White House aide to George W. Bush. He sees a clear effort to protect the president and the presidency.
TEVI TROY: When a press secretary who usually speaks off the cuff reads a very carefully written statement, it usually suggests that the lawyers were involved.
ORDOÑEZ: Now, Troy says Trump is likely to continue to support his Cabinet secretary until he doesn't. And he's not going to protect Hegseth - Trump, that is - if it is a detriment to himself.
KELLY: NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez, thank you.
ORDOÑEZ: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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