ABC News anchor Martha Raddatz reports on new details showing the so-called “fishermen” aboard the narco-smuggling vessel were actively trying to recover the cocaine payload after the first U.S. military strike, contradicting Democrat claims.
In a devastating blow to Democrats and the media-manufactured “double-tap war crime” narrative, ABC News has now confirmed what the Pentagon already knew: the two alleged survivors of the cartel-linked cocaine boat were NOT surrendering, shipwrecked victims, they climbed back onto the vessel, attempted to recover narcotics, and maintained communication with other smuggling assets.
That makes them active combatants, not “victims.”
And just like that, the Left’s latest hoax, the “double-tap strike” smear campaign, detonated on impact.
The Washington Post report claimed that the Department of War, under dubious legal authority, ordered secondary strikes to kill drug traffickers in the Caribbean Sea after they survived an initial strike, and that US forces are killing narcoterrorists without justification.
“As two men clung to a stricken, burning ship targeted by SEAL Team 6, the Joint Special Operations commander followed the defense secretary’s order to leave no survivors,” the fake newspaper reported.
According to an anonymous source, Hegseth gave a verbal order “to kill everybody” in the September 2 strike against narcoterrorists trafficking narcotics into the United States, which killed 11 designated terrorists.
Now, nearly three months later, Washington Post sources used in the article liken the SEAL Team 6-led operation to “murder” and a “war crime.”
On Wednesday, ABC News reported explosive new details from a source familiar with the operation, blowing apart the Democrat claim and the Washington Post report that the second strike was some kind of illegal “double-tap” or “execution.”
According to Martha Raddatz:
“According to a source familiar with the incident, the two survivors climbed back onto the boat after the initial strike. They were believed to be potentially in communication with [other boats in the vicinity] and salvaging some of the drugs. Because of that, it was determined they were still in the fight and valid targets. A JAG officer was also giving legal advice.”
If you’re still climbing aboard a cartel vessel, communicating with accomplices, and trying to recover the cocaine payload intended for U.S. shores, you are not a “rescued shipwrecked mariner.” You are a narco-combatant continuing the mission.
That fact alone obliterates the entire “war crime” smear campaign currently being fanned by the Washington Post and Democrat lawmakers.
Fox News’ Jesse Watters responded bluntly to the new development, stating, “This backs up the entire second strike.”
And White House adviser Stephen Miller put it most clearly:
“Yes, it doesn’t get more crystal clear than that. The mission is: take out the boat, stop the drugs, keep this vessel and its cargo from reaching our shore using lethal means. Our amazing military — the heroes of the United States Armed Forces — did exactly that.
President Trump, Secretary Haigset, and this entire government are committed to finally using our military to defend our people, our borders, our family, our culture, our history, our heritage — to defend the United States. We’re not going off running around the Middle East trying to build democracies in caves and deserts and in distant sands that have never known democracy. We’re using the military to protect American security, American prosperity, American lives right here where we live, where our children live.”
WATCH:
BREAKING: ABC just BLEW UP Democrats’ “DOUBLE-TAP HOAX” like a COKE BOAT
The Two Coke Boat “SURVIVORS” CLIMBED BACK onto the boat after the strike and tried to “SALVAGE” THE DRUGS pic.twitter.com/MuUvmBxUUz
— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) December 4, 2025
Even the far-left New York Times has debunked the WaPo report. According to the news outlet:
According to five U.S. officials, who spoke separately and on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter that is under investigation, Mr. Hegseth, ahead of the Sept. 2 attack, ordered a strike that would kill the people on the boat and destroy the vessel and its purported cargo of drugs.
But, each official said, Mr. Hegseth’s directive did not specifically address what should happen if a first missile turned out not to fully accomplish all of those things. And, the officials said, his order was not a response to surveillance footage showing that at least two people on the boat survived the first blast.
Admiral Bradley ordered the initial missile strike and then several follow-up strikes that killed the initial survivors and sank the disabled boat. As that operation unfolded, they said, Mr. Hegseth did not give any further orders to him.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth previously responded to the firestorm of “fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting” on Friday, maintaining that the actions are lawful and align with the stated intention of the strikes to be “lethal, kinetic strikes.”
He further declared that “We have only just begun to kill narco-terrorists” in a follow-up post.
JUST IN: “We Have Only Just Begun to Kill Narco-Terrorists” – War Sec. Pete Hegseth Responds to Reports of “Illegal” Orders to “Kill Everybody” on Narcotrafficking Boats as Democrats Call for Prosecution of “a War Crime or Outright Murder”
The post ABC Shatters Democrat “Double-Tap Hoax” — New Report Confirms Narco-Traffickers Climbed Back Onto Vessel to Recover DRUGS, Forcing Second Strike appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.