Hegseth: Not In the Room Where It Happened
Defense secretary claims he left meeting monitoring Sept. 2 boat strike because he had a thing
Dec. 3: Hegseth’s new second-strike story shoots himself in the second foot … Admiral getting thrown under bus will brief Congress Thursday on way to catch bus … Rollins threatens second strike on food stamps … Trump refers to a Black member of Congress born in Somalia as “garbage” …
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that the results of the first Sept. 2, 2025, boat strike were unclear due to the “fog of war.” And that instead of staying to see the results clearly, he left to go do other stuff.
Based on his remarks, at Tuesday’s cabinet meeting in the White House, it appeared that Hegseth wanted to leave that room, too. Trapped there for two hours, clinging for life to his shipwreck of a president, Hegseth repeatedly carried out strikes against his own credibility, clearly discernible as nearly destroyed even through the fog of words.
Much of the focus has been on whether Hegseth ordered or knew about the second strike, which even TV pundits on the right have acknowledged as criminal1. The first strike, too — and all 21 President Boat-iac Killer™ maritime attacks, leaving 83 people dead — are all crimes.
So, on Tuesday, Hegseth seemed happy to remain clouded in the fog of war surrounding his bullshit of war. But we don’t have to!
Hegseth again rejected honor, U.S. and international law, the norms of civilized human beings, and the ethos of Gen. George Washington. Instead, he deployed a straw man to suggest that, gawrsh, murder dressed up in cool military-sounding jargon is the only alternative to coddling terrorists:
How do you treat al-Qaeda and ISIS? Do you arrest them and treat them — pat them on the head and say don’t do that again — or do you end the problem directly by taking a lethal, kinetic approach?
For the record, all the laws make clear which of those two options is the crime Hegseth’s confessing to.
His noteworthy new claim Tuesday was that he was not in the room when the followup strike(s)2 happened. Before that, though, maybe subconsciously, Hegseth said, “I wish everybody could be in the room watching our professionals.”
Here’s what Hegseth said afterward about whether he wished he could be in the room watching our professionals:
…the first couple of strikes — as you would, as any leader would want, you want to own that responsibility — so I said I’m going to be the one to make the call after getting all the information and make sure it’s the right strike. That was September 2nd. ... I watched that first strike live. As you can imagine at the Department of War, we got a lot of things to do, so I didn’t stick around for the hour and two hours or whatever where all the sensitive site exploitation digitally occurs. 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 — and by the way, Admiral [Mitch] Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat.
That’s a lot to unfuck. But this is the life we’ve chosen.
1) If Hegseth wanted to own that responsibility, why leave?
2) His claim that “I watched that first strike live” is very different framing from what he told Fox the day after that strike: “I can tell you that was definitely not artificial intelligence. I watched it live.”
This is potentially important. The “that” Hegseth is referring to is the Pentagon video of the strike that Trump posted on Sept. 2. But “that” was edited. Which means it may have included video from after the second strike — the video about which Hegseth said he watched “it” live. In which case he was lying about it and that.
3) “[T]he hour and two hours or whatever”? Whatever? He doesn’t know how long the boat-murder meeting went? He’s literally a secretary!
But also, the strike lasted more than an hour? Oops!
One of the second-strike justifications reported by the Washington Post was that the survivors had to be killed to prevent them from calling for help. Which you can do in an hour, even with the extra dialing for country code and figuring out whether you dial +01 first or whatever the fuck.
4) My favorite. “[W]e got a lot of things to do, so I didn’t stick around … So I moved on to my next meeting.” First of all in our fourth item, you just know someone’s filing a Freedom of Information request for Hegseth’s calendar and/or transcripts. Ideally, it’ll tell us that he announced his departure with some form of the verb “bounce.”
Secondly, Hegseth’s got a lot of things to do? Like what? Shave people’s facial hair? He’s notorious for filling his days with photo ops and working-out-with-the-troops Jane Fonda videos. So, yeah, let’s hear about that urgent meeting!
Q: Mr. Secretary, on the second strike, you said it happened more than an hour after the first [Inaudible]
Hegseth: I couldn’t tell you the exact amount of time.
Au contraire, mon dude, you just did. And, again, we’re gonna learn a lot more about this timeline as they inevitably drip out bits of The Boat-iac Killer Files™ with the same alacrity as The Epstein Files™ and the same credibility as Trump’s 11-year-gestating health-care plan.
Hegseth himself seemed unhappy with his own “I wasn’t there” excuse, once he was committed to it and it was too late to go with “The dog ate my murder orders,” “I thought the test was next Tuesday,” or “I was told there would be no war crimes or international norms on the exam.” Here’s how instantly uncomfortable he was when pushed on it:
Q: Sir, you had left the room, is what you’re saying?
Hegseth: I already stated my answer.
Maybe you wanna phone a friend? Because we know you hate lifelines.
And then there’s the fog:
Q: So you didn’t see any survivors, to be clear, after that first strike, you personally?
Hegseth: I did not personally see survivors, but I stand — because the thing was on fire. It was exploded in fire or smoke, you can’t see anything. You got digital. This is called the fog of war.
Actually, this is called fire or smoke. “The fog of war” is a metaphor for uncertainty in combat. And the remedy for persistent war fog is not to leave the room for jumping jacks with ROTC students.
The remedy — which I looked it up Because I’m A Dick (BIAD) — comes from the same guy who told us what the fog metaphor is meta for: Prussian General Carl von Clausewitz. Here’s the relevant passage, according to the U.S. Marine Corps University (italics added for not leaving the room):
“War is the realm of uncertainty; three quarters of the factors on which action in war is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty. A sensitive and discriminating judgement is called for; a skilled intelligence to scent out the truth.”
In other words, “the fog of war” isn’t an excuse for rash action like following up boat murders with more boat murders.
The fog of war isn’t a Get Out of The Hague Free card, it’s a burden on commanders to wield the sensitive and discriminating judgment for which Hegseth is so well known, and the skilled intelligence that wasn’t an issue when Trump nominated Hegseth for looking good on TV.
Fog of war means you stay in the room until it clears. Then you decide whether to do more murders.
Side note: Typically, the Trump cabinet has been circumspect about giving full voice to the conspiracy theories about Venezuelan President (and U.S. boogeyman du jour) Nicolás Maduro’s cartel and his election-rigging tentacles around the world.
But Hegseth let it slip just a tad, referring to “Tren de Aragua … poisoning — an intentional poisoning — of the American people.” Intentional. That’s a glimmer of the theory that Maduro sent Tren de Aragua as a covert paramilitary force to destabilize the United States.
And Pres. Donald Trump shouldn’t be let off the boathook, here. Let’s revisit exactly what he claimed when he posted his first note taunting the authorities about his first kill. Here’s what he posted:
“…on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists…”
Funny, Hegseth says the order came from him!
But also, Trump definitively says that his 11 victims were (a) Tren de Aragua [TDA] and (b) Narcoterrorists. But they’re not saying (a) or (b) anymore. Here’s Hegseth from Tuesday: “[E]very one of those drug boats is tied to a designated terrorist organization.” Tied, motherfucker? A designated terrorist organization?
And back on that halcyon day of Sept. 3, when boat murders were still carefree and fun, Trump went even further: “TDA is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, operating under the control of Nicolás Maduro.” Not saying this so much these days, after months of not releasing any evidence of it.
And then there’s this from Trump’s post: “The strike resulted in 11 terrorists killed in action.”
We now know that was a lie, a lie rendered even more ghoulish and monstrous now that the fog of war from Trump’s ass has cleared. Instead, we now know that two of those killed in action were killed in the action of clinging to boat wreckage while thinking to themselves, “Luckily the Defense Department Law of War Manual explicitly protects us now that we’re shipwrecked!”
BRADLEY FIGHTING VEHICLE Admiral Franklin Mitchell Bradley — also known by his nickname “Mitch,” or his full nickname, “Frank Mitch Brad” — is expected on Thursday to brief members of Congress about what exactly happened in the fire or smoke of war for one or two hours or whatever.
Trump to Follow Up Strike on SNAP Funds with Second Strike
After cutting $186 billion in food stamps from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) with his One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBuBBA), Pres. Donald Trump on Tuesday followed up with a second strike against potential survivors of the first one.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Tuesday said she’s preparing to cut billions of dollars more, potentially creating malnutrition and hunger for millions of kids and former kids. In blue states.
That’s because some states — i.e., blue — are refusing to give Rollins info on who their SNAP recipients are. Rollins in May said she wants that info to verify the SNAP eligibility of 42 million recipients and/or deport them and/or check their social media for posts about Israel starving Gaza. The federal government provides half of SNAP funding, because it fucking has to because laws.
At Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, Rollins said only 29 states have agreed to comply. Regarding the timeframe for cutting off funds, Rollins said “As of next week, we have begun,” without explaining how she’s already have begunning something she won’t have begun until as of next week.
It’ll be challenged in court, of course. But while much of the focus will be on blue states losing funding, compliant red states will also suffer. Why?
Because the data Rollins is getting about red-state recipients will be used to deny some of them food stamps. Citing that old shibboleth “waste, fraud, and abuse,” the USDA told the Washington Post Tuesday that the plan is to “scrub all available information to end indiscriminate welfare fraud.”
As longtime Newsfuckers know, “waste, fraud, and abuse” is a myth and a tell. When there is fraud and abuse in any benefits program, recipients are typically the victims, not the perpetrators.
In fact, I looked up food-stamp fraud — BIAD — and it turns out that literally on the same day Rollins made her stand against food-stamp fraud, the Government Accountability Office released a report on it. The report found that from October 2022 through December 2024 — aka two years or whatever — there was $320 million in food-stamp fraud … against legitimate recipients. People cloned or skimmed their cards and took the money. Illegally. Like Rollins is doing.
JESUS FOOD-STAMP CHRIST No one should ask how Christian Trump officials can starve poor people. Would one ask how a Jewish, Muslim, or atheist unqualified cabinet member could do it? No? Okay, then.
But also, the feature-not-bug of most religions is their pervertability — and, no, I don’t mean their ability to nurture and protect perverts — how conducive they are to multiple interpretations (or exegeses, for you fancy people). So, even the most Christian of Christians can find a Christian justification for the worst deeds. (See: Crusades, the.)
In this case, as literally no other news outlet will tell you today, Rollins is a sponsor of the weekly White House Bible study that teaches that Jesus loves feeding the poor but not by creating a government to do so more efficiently and effectively. As you and I revealed back in June, Rollins’ Bible study teaches that God is not just super-picky but omni-picky when it comes to who helps the poor and in His divine analness He does not want government doing it.
Even for Trump, This Was Ugly
TFN doesn’t usually traffic in outrage bait, but Pres. Donald Trump on Tuesday spoke in especially vile terms about other human beings, based on their nationality and on the Venn diagram of that nationality and their opposition to him.
It was, literally, the closing note of a cabinet meeting so long that Trump appeared to nod off during the constant fellating, even though it was of him.
Trump was asked whether Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) should resign over billions of dollars in COVID fraud by Somali immigrants in Somali communities there, almost the same way there was billions of dollars in COVID fraud by white Americans in white America.
Naturally, because Somalia, Trump dragged in Somalia native Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), a U.S. citizen since the age of 17 and also a human since the age of 0.1. Here’s some of Tuesday’s despicable shit about that human, and about Somalia, from the only president to be a role model for literally no kid anywhere:
Somalia, which is barely a country, they have no anything, they just run around killing each other. There’s no structure. And when I see somebody like Ilhan Omar, who I don’t know at all [blah blah thought unfinished] … She’s a real terrible person. …
[blah blah Minnesota has lakes]
…Somalians ripped off that state for billions of dollars, billions. Every year, billions of dollars and they contribute nothing. The welfare is like 88%. They contribute nothing. I don’t want them in our country … Somebody would say, oh, that’s not politically correct. I don’t care. I don’t want them in our country. Their country is no good for a reason. Their country stinks and we don’t want them in our country.
[blah blah nothing about the Statue of Liberty poem literally saying the opposite3.]
…we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country. Ilhan Omar is garbage. She’s garbage. Her friends are garbage. These aren’t people that work. These aren’t people that say let’s go, come on, let’s make this place great. … when they come from hell and they complain and do nothing but bitch we don’t want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it. Thank you very much, everybody.
The scandal of Somali immigrants ripping off state COVID benefits has been around since, um, soon after COVID. Like, arrests, convictions. In other words, they caught them!
Does Walz bear some responsibility? Maybe? Honestly, I’m not sufficiently read in to weigh in. But the question to ask with any story is, why are we talking about it? Why now?
Which means Newsfuckers know what time it is! It’s Reverse-Timeline time!
Dec. 2: Unidentified media person asks Trump whether Walz should resign.
Nov. 29: New York Times story on the scandal for no apparent reason other than…
Nov. 21, 8:37pm: Trump posts that he’s stripping Somali immigrants of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and blaming Walz for making the state a hub for money laundering. Wait, money laundering? Where’d that come from…?
Nov. 21, 7pm: Fox airs a segment in which right-winger Christopher Rufo calls on Trump to end TPS for Somalis, based on his own story…
Nov. 19: Right-wing media posts an “investigation” of how Minnesota COVID fraud we’ve known about for years funded the al-Shabaab terror group. Says who? “[O]ne confidential source.” 🤣
Rufo took a victory lap on Tuesday for getting his bullshit on the table at Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, but lots of right-wing bullshit can be Benjamin Buttoned like this: Dusty scandal gets shiny new coat from right-wing outrage machine, it’s elevated by Trump, justifying mainstream media mainstreaming that dusty old story as somehow new and worth discussing now.
Which media we choose to support matters a lot!
TCB
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Go get ‘em, kids! Because this is the room where it happens...
TFN creator and writer Jonathan Larsen co-created Up w/ Chris Hayes and wrote for Countdown with Keith Olbermann at MSNBC, helped launch CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360° and Air America Radio, and has also worked at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Young Turks.
Andrew Napolitano, on NewsMax: “Everybody along the line who did it — from the secretary of defense to the admiral to the people who actually pulled the trigger — should be prosecuted for a war crime for killing these two people.”
The New York Times has reported multiple followup strikes, not just one second strike. Which means at some point we’re going to be engaged in fact-finding about those strikes, too. In between demanding the release of The Epstein Files™.
…Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse [literally, garbage] of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me…
Loved today’s piece. This line reordered my brain: “That’s a lot to unfuck. But this is the life we’ve chosen.”
Thank you for making me smarter, more skeptical, calmer, and more focused. E pluribus fuckem!
Hegseth keeps talking about the “fog of war” like it was weather, when what he really described was “I wandered out of the room before the part where accountability started.”
Calling it kinetic, lethal, classified, whatever, does not change the basic story: people in a room watched a boat full of human beings get turned into a legal argument, and the guy at the top now wants credit for the first blast and plausible deniability for the second.
If your defense boils down to “I wanted to own the decision so much that I left before I could see what I decided,” you are not a warrior, you are a frat boy who found the drone controls.