White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Monday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth authorized the Sept. 2 strikes on an alleged drug trafficking boat in the Caribbean, while saying it was Adm. Frank Bradley who specifically ordered a second strike that killed survivors.

The second strike reportedly killed two people who were hanging onto the burning vessel after an initial strike.

That second strike has become a huge controversy for the White House, the Pentagon and Hegseth, with Democrats and Republicans in Congress raising questions about whether it constituted a war crime.

“President Trump and Secretary Hegseth have made it clear that presidentially designated narcoterrorist groups are subject to lethal targeting in accordance with the laws of war. With respect to the strikes in question on Sept. 2, Secretary Hegseth authorized Adm. Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes,” Leavitt said.

“Adm. Bradley worked well within his authority and the law to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated,” she continued. “This administration has designated these narcoterrorists as foreign terrorist organizations. The president has the right to take them out if they are threatening the United States of America, if they are bringing illegal narcotics that are killing our citizens at a record rate, which is what they are doing.”

During a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Hegseth said he did not see any survivors in the water, saying the vessel “exploded in fire, smoke, you can’t see anything. ... This is called the fog of war.”

Hegseth also said he “didn’t stick around” for the remainder of the Sept. 2 mission following the initial strike and the admiral in charge “made the right call” in ordering the second hit, which he “had complete authority to do.”

Lawmakers have opened investigations following a Washington Post report that Hegseth issued a verbal order to “kill everybody” on the boat, the first vessel hit in the Trump administration’s counterdrug campaign in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean that has grown to over 20 known strikes and more than 80 dead.