A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
President Trump and his advisers met yesterday evening to discuss next steps with Venezuela.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The meeting comes amid growing tension between the two countries. For months, the Trump administration has conducted deadly strikes against what it claims are drug boats traveling from Venezuela to the U.S., and there's a military buildup off the coast of Venezuela. Coming up, we'll speak with Representative Adam Smith about questions he has over the legality of the attacks. Let's first get to the latest facts.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR White House correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben is here. So, Danielle, tell us about the meeting over Venezuela.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Well, there's not much to tell right now. We do know the meeting had been set to be with Trump's national security team, so that would include people like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio. But Trump has said he spoke to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro last week, but Trump wouldn't say much more. All that said, it was likely not a friendly call. Trump has long railed against the authoritarian leader. And Maduro, for his part, thinks the U.S. is aiming for regime change in his country, and he's accused the U.S. of using this pretext of fighting drug traffickers to seize his country's oil reserves.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, you mentioned Secretary Pete Hegseth in connection to that meeting about Venezuela. He's getting some heat for strikes on one of those boats. Take us through why.
KURTZLEBEN: Sure. So on Friday, The Washington Post reported that on September 2, U.S. forces struck one of those boats, leaving survivors afterwards, and so Hegseth gave an order to kill those survivors. Now, NPR later confirmed that Hegseth had ordered both strikes. All of that matters because, as Congress members from both parties have said, that second strike may have constituted a war crime. Meanwhile, the Department of Defense in that Washington Post story said that, quote, "this entire narrative is completely false."
MARTÍNEZ: Now, what did we learn from the White House yesterday?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, the administration then confirmed some parts of this story. At yesterday's press briefing, press secretary Karoline Leavitt acknowledged a second strike. But as for Hegseth ordering it, she didn't deny it but said Hegseth authorized U.S. Navy Admiral Frank M. Bradley to take these actions.
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KAROLINE LEAVITT: Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes. Admiral Bradley worked well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated.
KURTZLEBEN: But our NPR colleague Tom Bowman has new reporting on this. Yesterday, a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly pushed back on the White House, saying Hegseth gave the command for two strikes to kill in addition to two strikes to sink the boat.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. So we have all that. And just a few weeks ago, Democratic Congress members with military or intelligence backgrounds released a video telling service members to refuse illegal orders. Trump called that video seditious behavior punishable by death. Have they responded to the latest developments?
KURTZLEBEN: Yes. Arizona Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, a retired naval officer who was in that video, spoke about this yesterday. When a reporter asked him about the strikes, Kelly said, if the reporting is accurate, that second strike could have been illegal.
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MARK KELLY: I will say, though, you know, as somebody who has sunk two ships myself, folks in the military need to understand the law of the sea, the Geneva Conventions, what the law says.
KURTZLEBEN: And leaders of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees have said they're going to be looking into these strikes, and Admiral Bradley is expected to give a classified briefing on Thursday. So we may know more about them in the weeks ahead.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. That's NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben. Thanks a lot.
KURTZLEBEN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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