War Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered another strike against a suspected “narco-terrorist” boat on Thursday as he pushes back against “war crime” accusations leveled against him by Democratic lawmakers.

The strike killed four men believed to be transporting drugs to the United States in the Eastern Pacific, according to the U.S. Southern Command, which released an unclassified video of the bombing. The U.S. Southern Command said that “intelligence confirmed” the boat was carrying “illicit narcotics.”

On Dec. 4, at the direction of @SecWar Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel in international waters operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization. Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was carrying illicit narcotics and… pic.twitter.com/pqksvxM3HP

— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) December 4, 2025

Since September, the Trump administration has ordered strikes against at least 23 drug boats, killing 87 suspected drug runners.

Hegseth celebrated the latest strike as Democrats in Congress call for him to face consequences over accusations that he ordered a second missile strike on a suspected drug boat when survivors were in the water. The Washington Post cited anonymous sources in a report last week that claimed Hegseth gave an order to “kill them all” after two men survived the first missile strike.

As Democrats’ criticism of Hegseth continued to mount on Thursday, the War secretary responded to a social media post from Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet, who wrote, “Every new attack aimed at Pete Hegseth makes me want another narco drug boat blown up and sent to the bottom of the ocean.”

“Your wish is our command, Andrew. Just sunk another narco boat,” Hegseth replied.

The claims reported in the Washington Post story were refuted by Navy Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley, who told lawmakers on Thursday that Hegseth did not issue a “kill them all” after a first strike left two survivors.

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Bradley “was very clear that he was given no such order, to give no quarter or to kill them all,” said Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton. Lawmakers also watched the video of the second strike, which showed “two shirtless people clinging to the bow of a capsized and inoperable boat, drifting in the water,” according to Washington Democratic Congressman Adam Smith.

“The order was basically: Destroy the drugs, kill the 11 people on the boat,” Smith added.

Cotton argued that the second strike was necessary because the survivors were attempting to salvage the drugs.

“I saw two survivors trying to flip a boatload of drugs down the United States back over so they could stay in the fight, and potentially, given all the context — we heard of other narco-terrorist boats in the area coming to their aid to — recover the cargo and recover those narco-terrorists,” he told reporters after watching video of the follow-up strike.

Hegseth has also faced criticism from some Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who said that the video of the strike showed that the survivors were “distressed, shipwrecked or incapacitated people.” Paul also called on Hegseth to release the video of the strikes for Americans to watch and judge for themselves.

Hegseth said during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday that he “didn’t personally see survivors” after watching a live feed of the strike in question as it was carried out.

“The thing was on fire. It was exploded in fire and smoke. You can’t see it,” Hegseth said, adding, “This is called the fog of war.”

New York City’s Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, promised on Thursday to end homeless encampment sweeps when he takes over next month.

Mamdani said he would discontinue a priority enacted by current Mayor Eric Adams, who attempted to clear out “makeshift, unsafe houses” that have popped up throughout the city, The New York Post reported. The mayor-elect will stop the sweeps despite city officials receiving more than 45,000 complaints about the homeless encampments so far this year.

Mamdani argued that the Adams administration’s policy has failed because it did not connect “homeless New Yorkers to the housing that they so desperately need.”

“We are going to take an approach that understands its mission is connecting those New Yorkers to housing,” Mamdani added. “Whether it’s supportive housing, whether it’s rental housing, whatever kind of housing it is, because what we have seen is the treatment of homelessness as if it is a natural part of living in this city, when in fact, it’s more often a reflection of a political choice being made.”

New York City currently urges residents to “report homeless people who have established encampments on public property,” adding, “In New York City, obstructions and encampments are not allowed.”

Mamdani cruised to a landslide mayoral election victory over former New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa last month in part because of his focus on affordability and housing. Mamdani vowed to build more affordable housing in the city and said he would push to freeze rents in some apartment buildings.

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He did not specify how he would address complaints about homeless encampments or if he would remove the city’s online complaint portal. New York City’s homeless population has skyrocketed in recent years, largely due to the massive influx of illegal immigrants, according to the New York state government. In January 2022, an estimated 45,343 people were in the city’s homeless shelters. Just two years later, there were nearly 90,000.

Mamdani’s opposition to the sweeps is partly based on a 2023 audit released by New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, which found that during Mayor Adams’ homeless encampment raids, only a small percentage of homeless people removed from their makeshift housing accepted temporary shelter with the city, Fox News reported.

“The evidence is clear: by every measure, the homeless sweeps failed,” Lander argued.

The Adams administration has pushed back on the audit, saying that Lander’s findings took the data “out of context.”

“Cherry-picking numbers and sharing them out of context paint a disingenuous picture as these cleanups have actually connected more than 500 New Yorkers to safe, stable housing,” City Hall said on Thursday.

“New York City continues to have the lowest rate of unsheltered homelessness of any major city in the nation,” City Hall added.