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The Beat with Ari Melber

Pentagon Chief Under Fire

The Beat with Ari Melber

Ari Melber, MS NOW

Daily News, News, Versant Media, Politics, Ms Now, Government, Versant

4.64.1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 December 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Trump defense secretary Pete Hegseth is under fire and facing allegations of having committed or overseen a war crime. MS NOW's Ari Melber reports on the latest developments.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

The Trump administration is facing some very real problems right now.

0:03.6

That includes a legal rejection.

0:07.7

This has been late breaking news.

0:09.5

The Trump DOJ has failed in what was a do-over of another failure.

0:14.4

You may recall all of these cases they've brought against perceived opponents,

0:18.3

their so-called enemies list.

0:20.4

Well, what you see is several of those

0:21.7

were dismissed, and the update is tonight, we have the news. They have failed to re-indite the New York

0:28.5

Attorney General, Letitia James. A judge had dismissed the original charges. That was within the last

0:32.5

two weeks. So that's a huge rebuke. It shows they keep legally falling on their face. I'm going to get to that.

0:39.1

So if you're interested in how that happened, what it means, how many of these cases are doomed, stay with us.

0:43.9

We begin with an even larger story by any estimation because it involves allegations of war crimes by the Trump administration, shifting narratives about the timeline, real questions

0:55.2

from both parties, Republicans joining in the demand for answers on Capitol Hill. Shifting

1:00.1

responses from the administration have added confusion and concern to what we already know

1:05.8

was a problem, a deadly boat strike, that legal experts and veterans and military experts have said, based on what

1:12.4

we know, amounts to a war crime. Now, usually you can't say that so quickly, but because of the

1:18.1

nature of the multiple strikes and the clear evidence not really disputed that survivors were

1:24.3

killed in a follow-up strike, that looks like a violation of the uniform code of

1:28.7

military justice, a war crime. Who would be responsible and whether there will be accountability

1:33.6

are the big open questions roiling Washington. Admiral Frank Mitch Bradley was the commander

1:38.5

in charge, reporting, of course, up to the defense secretary appointed by Donald Trump.

1:43.6

He was on Capitol Hill to brief lawmakers today.

...

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