Trump admin live updates: Trump pardons former entertainment exec indicted by own DOJ

Hegseth clarified comments he gave back in September after the boat strike on Sept. 2 of a suspected drug boat where he claimed he saw the attack take place live.

At the time, he and the White House did not disclose that a second strike was ordered on the boat.

Asked if he saw survivors of that second strike, Hegseth reiterated that he did see the initial strike live, but did not see the follow-up attack -- and did not personally see survivors.

"As you can imagine, the Department of War, we got a lot of things to do. So I didn't stick around for the hour and two hours, whatever, where all the sensitive site exploitation digitally occurs," he said.

"So I moved on to my next meeting. A couple of hours later, I learned that that commander had made the -- which he had the complete authority to do," Hegseth added.

The Defense Secretary later added he did not see any survivors.

"I did not personally see survivors ... because that thing was on fire," he said. "It was exploded and fire and smoke, you can't see anything ... This is called the fog of war."

Kingsley Wilson, the Pentagon press secretary, gave her first on-camera press briefing on Tuesday, where she criticized The Washington Post's reporting of the second strike on an alleged drug boat on Sept. 2, saying the comments attributed to Hegseth ordering to kill everyone aboard the boat to be "totally fabricated."

"He never said them," Wilson said.

She pointed to the White House comments from Monday that "the decision to restrike the narco-terrorist vessel was made by Adm. Bradley operating under the clear and long-standing authorities to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States was eliminated."

She added that "at the end of the day, the secretary and the president are the ones directing these strikes, and any follow-on strikes like those which were directed by Adm. Bradley, the secretary 100% agrees with."

Wilson also said that "without a shadow of a doubt, every single one of our military and civilian lawyers knows that these individuals are narco-terrorists."

-ABC News' Luis Martinez

Trump was asked about the his knowledge of the second strike on an alleged drug boat on Sept. 2 that reports say targeted survivors.

On Sunday, Trump said he did not know any information about the second strike, however, the next day White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that a second strike was ordered.

Trump said Tuesday that he hasn't gotten a lot of information on that strike.

"I didn't know about the second strike. I didn't know anything about people I wasn't involved in. I knew they took out a boat. But I would say this, they had a strike. I hear the gentleman that was in charge of that is extraordinary," he said.

The president closed his eyes repeatedly during the roundtable discussion at his Cabinet meeting Tuesday.

The meeting has exceeded an hour with the heads of many of departments and the vice president talking about their achievements and praising Trump's agenda.