APPLENEWS - STORY ADD
Trump admin live updates: Trump pardons former entertainment exec indicted by own DOJ
Tim Leiweke was indicted for allegedly orchestrating a bid-rigging scheme.
President Donald Trump answered questions about a controversial Sept. 2 boat strike while in the Oval Office Wednesday afternoon. Trump, who said Tuesday that he "didn't know" about a second strike on an alleged drug boat in September that reports say killed two survivors of an initial strike, said Wednesday that he would be open to releasing more video of the boat strike.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that he didn't see the second strike and didn't see survivors from the initial strike. Hegseth has backed Adm. Mitch Bradley, who the White House said made the decision for the second strike. Bradley is set to brief the Senate and House Armed Services committees on the strikes on Thursday.
Key Headlines
Trump said he hasn't gotten a lot of information about boat strike that killed survivors
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.
Trump closes his eyes repeatedly as Cabinet members praise his 1st year
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.
Hegseth says 'we've only just begun' putting alleged narco-terrorists at 'the bottom of the ocean'
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, speaking at President Donald Trump's cabinet meeting on Tuesday, said that "we've only just begun" striking alleged drug boats and narco-terrorists, saying they will be put "at the bottom of the ocean."
"We've only just begun striking narco-boats and putting narco-terrorists at the bottom of the ocean because they've been poisoning the American people," Hegseth said.
Hegseth's comments come after he has faced bipartisan scrutiny over reports that the U.S. military killed two survivors of an earlier strike on a boat suspected of ferrying drugs in the Caribbean Sea in September.
The White House acknowledges that a second strike was ordered on a boat already hit by the military in the Caribbean Sea, and ABC News has confirmed that survivors from the initial strike were killed as a result.
Trump says he spoke with family of National Guard members who were shot
President Trump spoke about last week's shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., and reflected on his conversations with the family members of the victims.
Trump said the mother of Andrew Wolfe, who is still hospitalized, told him she believed her son would survive.
Trump said he spoke to family of U.S. Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, who died as a result of the shooting.
"The rest of their lives are going to be devastated. She was an incredible person, highly respected, top of a class, everything. She was like a perfect human being. 20 years old, just started. She was like a baby. She was so proud," Trump said.
The president did note that he was proud of the work the National Guard has done in reducing crime in the city.
"Despite what just happened, Washington, D.C. has become a really safe place," he said.