Hegseth defends boat strike; Putin rejects Trump peace plan
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 5 December 2025
⏱️ 32 minutes
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Summary
In September, the U.S. military began striking boats suspected of drug smuggling in the Caribbean. Since then, questions about the legality of these strikes have swirled. Last week, The Post reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken order to kill everyone before a Sept. 2 attack, according to officials. The commander of the mission later made the decision to strike two survivors of the attack who had been clinging to the wreckage. Today on the politics roundtable, we’ll discuss the fallout, and why both Republicans and Democrats are increasing their scrutiny of Hegseth’s leadership at the Department of Defense.
And, after brokering a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in October, President Trump hoped to do the same for Russia and Ukraine. But his efforts have fallen short.
Host Colby Itkowitz speaks with Matthew Choi, the co-anchor of our politics newsletter, The Early Brief, and White House reporter Michael Birnbaum.
Today's episode was produced by Laura Benshoff, Josh Carroll, and Thomas Lu. It was mixed by Sean Carter. It was edited by Reena Flores. Thanks also to our politics editors.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | How has the White House, the Pentagon, like, defended what happened back in September? |
| 0:06.0 | They have been all over the place, Colby. They've said a whole bunch of things. |
| 0:11.0 | They are somewhat contradictory. |
| 0:14.0 | Trump has said that he didn't know about the second strike, and he said that Defense secretary Pete Hegseth didn't either. |
| 0:22.6 | Pete Hagseth has called our reporting fake news. |
| 0:25.6 | Then the White House confirmed that there was a second strike. |
| 0:29.6 | Then Hagseth, who first said that we were all about fake news, and he also said back in September shortly after the strike that he had watched. |
| 0:38.1 | Now he says he only watched the first strike and he had stepped out for a meeting during the second strike. |
| 0:43.8 | It's been a journey in terms of the White House and Defense Department messaging. |
| 0:52.2 | From the Newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Report's weekly politics roundtable. |
| 0:57.2 | I'm Kolby Ekowitz. It's Friday, December 5th. |
| 1:00.3 | Today we're talking about the political fallout from the post-exclusive reporting on |
| 1:04.8 | Defense Secretary Pete Hegsef. And later, we'll discuss why President Trump's efforts to |
| 1:09.2 | broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine have fallen short. |
| 1:13.8 | I'm thrilled to be joined today by Matthew Choi. |
| 1:16.0 | He's the co-anchor of our politics newsletter, The Early Brief, and by White House reporter Michael Burnbaum. |
| 1:22.5 | Guys, thank you so much for joining me. |
| 1:24.6 | Thanks for having us, Colby. |
| 1:25.5 | Thanks for having us. |
| 1:28.1 | So the big news this week was about Pete Hegeseth. |
| 1:32.7 | Back in September, the U.S. military launched its first attack on a boat in the Caribbean. |
| 1:37.6 | The boat was allegedly carrying drugs to the U.S., |
... |
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