Impeachment articles cite survivor killings, judge ruling against Kelly inquiry

Coast Guard estimates no drugs in a quarter of boats it interdicts in the area

NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman reported that one article of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth refers to what it calls illegal killings in the U.S. campaign against suspected drug boats, and that in one case, two survivors of a U.S. boat strike were killed by U.S. service members. A federal judge has said that Hegseth’s effort to investigate Sen. Mark Kelly — over a video reminding service members they do not have to obey illegal orders — violated Kelly’s First Amendment rights.

Bowman also presented Hegseth’s accounting of the same campaign: Hegseth said the United States has sunk more than 70 of what he called “narcoterrorist boats” and killed 218 “narcoterrorists,” saying the dead were not civilians. Bowman noted that the Coast Guard has estimated that in about one-quarter of the boats it interdicts in the area, no drugs were found.

Members of Congress began voting on the articles of impeachment on the same day Hegseth held his first press conference in six months. Bowman described Hegseth as “his usual combative self” and said Hegseth argued the impeachment effort was a political stunt, called talk of impeachment a farce and a show trial, called Rep. Thomas Massie “a disgruntled, defeated congressman,” and said the military missions at issue were lawful.

Hegseth said: “Let’s be clear about what this resolution actually does. It tells our enemies - Iran, the cartels, every adversary watching - that the United States will actually punish its own warriors and its own civilian leadership for successfully executing lawful military operations.”

Most of the articles before Congress concern the wars in Iran and Yemen. Other articles address allegations that Hegseth killed civilians, that he acted outside the authority of his position when the United States arrested Venezuela’s president, and that he authorized strikes and bombings against suspected drug boats. Hegseth said past presidents were never called to task for their own operations that some question whether they violated the War Powers Act.

Some legal analysts said the illegal-killings article may carry some political weight — more heft on Capitol Hill — because it concerns specific charges, and Bowman described the Kelly article as carrying legal weight.

Host Sacha Pfeiffer asked NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik about the stagecraft of Hegseth’s performance. Folkenflik said Hegseth was tense and intense, and that throughout his remarks he “wrapped himself in President Trump and in the troops as though he was their shield and their protector.” Hegseth said at the press conference: “Put the secretary on trial today and the men and women who carried out those orders tomorrow. If they want to come for the warriors, they’re going to have to come through me.” Folkenflik called that an inversion of what was happening: “He wanted to use them to shield him.” Folkenflik also said Hegseth “really seemed only to get his full footing as he was asked questions by these completely onside pro-Trump media figures in the room.”

Folkenflik said Hegseth called on either conservative news outlets, including The Washington Times, or outright MAGA press figures, and that “a lot of the other questions, you’ve seen tougher pitches in T-ball leagues.” Among the questions Folkenflik cited as examples: how Hegseth felt when his own party’s politicians were not supporting him, whether he sounded comfortable in the president’s support, what he thought about the appointment of Steve Miller as the new chief of staff, and whether he had rallied allies on Capitol Hill. Folkenflik said that, to be fair, Fox News’s Lucas Tomlinson asked about Vice President Vance’s remarks blaming the war against Iran for the midterm results for Republicans — a question, Folkenflik said, that a lot of people wanted to hear how the defense secretary would answer.

The press conference was Hegseth’s first in months after he had essentially insisted that reporters formally pledge not to report anything unauthorized in order to continue covering the military from the Pentagon. Dozens of news outlets, including those across the political spectrum, walked away from that requirement, and NPR was among the outlets that refused to sign it. Bowman said the effect has been that covering the Pentagon is much harder: there are no real briefings, almost no background briefings, and Pentagon contacts are shut out of detailed information. Bowman said the lack of transparency was “helping no one,” adding that it was helping neither the American public nor the military in the field.

Bowman recalled the retired general Hal Moore, who served in Vietnam, telling him: “I always took reporters with me on combat missions because the American people have a right to know what’s being done in their name.” Bowman said, “I think that’s lost.” Folkenflik said impeachment filings and wartime crises are moments when public officials need to “face the music, face the questions,” and that this administration, the defense secretary and the president have sought to avoid those questions and to “prevent and pressure” news outlets from asking ones they do not want to face.