This is the Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.

I'm your host, Greg Sargent.

President Trump's illegal boat bombings in the Caribbean Sea just got much worse.

We've now learned that after demolishing a boat allegedly carrying drug smugglers in September, two survivors were

left behind, and they were both blown apart in a second strike. This is probably a war crime.

White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt faced reporters' questions about this on Monday and

tried to spin all of it as perfectly lawful.

But all she ended up revealing is how hard it is for the administration to justify its acts

when actual facts about them are known. We're working through all this with Jennifer Rubin,

co-founder and editor-in-chief of the contrarian who has a good piece laying all this out.

Jen, great to have you back on. It's great to be heard, Greg. So here's what we know. The Washington

Post reports that on September 2nd, after the U.S. blew up a boat carrying 11 people

allegedly smuggling drugs, a live drone feed then showed two survivors in the water clinging to

the wreckage. Then a second strike was ordered, which blew the men apart in the water.

This is a blatant, reprehensible violation of the laws of war. Jen, I wanted to get your reaction

just to these facts. Well, two things. First of all, Pete Hegseth had previously

made an assertion that we were to give no quarter, which is generally considered to be,

take no prisoners, kill everyone. That is in and of itself a blatantly illegal act. The second issue is it's not clear we're even

in a war and you need a war in order to have a war crime. The reason we're arguably not in a war is

number one, Congress is not declared a war, And number two, there is no evidence whatsoever that these

people on boats are armed or in an armed conflict with the United States or presenting any kind of

imminent threat. What that means is if we're not even at war, then the unjustified killing of another human being is murder.

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