Utah senator vows to ‘conduct oversight’ into second boat strike that killed survivors

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Sen. John Curtis is “concerned” about a second strike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea earlier this year that, according to the Washington Post, killed two survivors amid the wreckage. That strike on Sept. 2 against what the administration alleged was a drug-smuggling boat is now the subject of congressional investigations, which Curtis’s office said he supports. “The senator is concerned about the strike and supports the oversight efforts by the Senate Armed Services Committee,” Curtis’s office said Tuesday in a statement to KSL TV. “As chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Curtis is also working to conduct his own oversight into the strike.” Curtis, a Republican, declined an on-camera interview and did not respond to a question about whether he has concerns with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s leadership. Hegseth on Tuesday said he wasn’t aware of any survivors in the water, citing the “fog of war” in the aftermath of the first strike on the boat, according to the Associated Press. Earlier this year, Curtis was one of the deciding votes in favor of confirming Hegseth, a former Fox News host, to the Cabinet position.Utah’s other U.S. senator, Mike Lee, also a Republican, did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the boat strike controversy. Recent U.S. strikes against alleged drug-smuggling vessels have killed more than 80 people, per the Associated Press. Last week, the Washington Post reported that Hegseth verbally ordered U.S. forces to “kill everybody” on the boat on Sept. 2. Since then, Hegseth and White House officials have pointed to Navy Vice Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley as the person who gave the command to strike a second time. The Pentagon's chief spokesperson has also called the Post's port a “dangerous and irresponsible lie.” The Associated Press reported that several legal experts have said the second boat strike “violated peacetime laws and those governing armed conflict,” while the Pentagon’s manual on armed conflict laws agrees that attacking survivors “would be clearly illegal.” President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he was unaware of the second strike on the boat, according to NBC News, but he doubled down on previous threats to attack drug traffickers. In addition to the Senate Armed Services Committee investigation, leaders of the House Armed Services Committee said they would also take “bipartisan action to gather a full accounting of the operation in question,” the Associated Press reported.

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