Megyn Kelly believes Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth went too easy on the men killed in the alleged Venezuelan drug boat strikes, saying she'd 'like to see them suffer.'
The SiriusXM host was defending Trump and Hegseth as they faced outrage over the controversial lethal strikes Tuesday, saying the Pentagon showed them too much mercy.
'I really do kind of not only want to see them killed in the water, whether they’re on the boat or in the water, but I’d really like to see them suffer,' Kelly said.
While Kelly acknowledged that the military 'should not commit war crimes' she feels that their deaths are an appropriate response to bringing mass amounts of drugs into America and is just 'manufactured' Democrat outrage to take the heat off the lawmakers who ordered troops to defy 'illegal' orders from Trump.
'Nor do I really care that we’re killing the drug boat guys trying to kill my kids and yours right now by bringing their fentanyl to the United States, to try to get our kids when they go to college with, you know, some drug in some moment of weakness where they think they’re taking a Xanax,' she said.
Kelly envisioned her own take on what the men on those drug boats should face from the US military.
'I would like Trump and Hegseth to make it last a long time so that they lose a limb and bleed out a little. Like I’m really having a difficult time ginning up sympathy for these guys who ten seconds earlier almost got taken out by the initial bomb, but because they managed to get ejected, you know, a little too soon, had to be taken out in the water.'
Kelly acknowledge the legal differences in letting up on the victims, but called it 'a tough case to really gin up the sympathies of the American people.'
Megyn Kelly said Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth went too easy on the men killed in the alleged Venezuelan drug boat strikes
The SiriusXM host was defending Trump and Hegseth as they faced outrage over the controversial lethal strikes Tuesday, saying the Pentagon showed them mercy
The White House has been dealing with a cascade of critical headlines and congressional scrutiny of its actions against alleged narco-terrorists in the Caribbean.
So far, the administration has authorized over 20 strikes on alleged drug-running boats that have resulted in over 80 deaths.
Trump and Hegseth lauded the commander in charge of authorizing controversial lethal strikes on Venezuelan drug boats on Tuesday.
'We're taking those son of a b****es out,' Trump said when pressed by reporters during Tuesday's Cabinet meeting on a September mission that required multiple airstrikes that some of the president's critics have chalked up to a 'war crime.'
'[Biden] allowed them into our country, totally unvetted, totally unchecked. But he also allowed drugs to come in at record numbers.'
Letting Hegseth answer detailed questions on who authorized the follow-up strike in September, the secretary noted the commanding officer, Admiral Frank Bradley, was well within his lane in ordering a second bombardment.
However, Democrats in Congress have likened the attack to a 'war crime' because, under international law, targeting the wounded is disallowed.
'How do you treat al Qaeda and ISIS? Do you arrest them and treat them, pat them on the head and say, Don't do that again. Or you end the problem directly by taking a lethal, kinetic approach?' Hegseth told reporters.
'We're taking those son of a b****es out,' Trump said of the strikes on alleged narco-terrorist boats in the Caribbean
The White House has regularly been posting declassified videos of the US military's strikes on alleged narco-terrorists
Hegseth praised military professionals for the 'deliberative ... rigorous' process that they undertook to make sure the boats were tied to terrorism.
A report last Friday from the Washington Post claimed that Hegseth gave verbal orders to ensure there were no survivors - a claim that the Daily Mail has not verified and the White House strongly pushes back on.
'Admiral Bradley worked well within his authority and the law,' while conducting the operation with multiple strikes, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday.
The administration has claimed its strikes on the alleged drug boats are in defense of American citizens.
Trump also opened the door to striking other countries that send drugs to the US.
'I want those boats taken out, and if we have to, we will attack on land also,' he said. 'Anybody that's doing that and selling it into our country is subject to attack ... not just Venezuela.'
The Republican specifically noted how cocaine production in Colombia is still rampant and that drugs there are being sent to the US.
Trump has decried how drugs like fentanyl and cocaine being sent into the US from Venezuela have resulted in thousands of drug overdose deaths.
Estimates suggest a quarter of a million Americans have died from fentanyl-related overdoses since 2021.
Still, one critique is that only a small portion of the fentanyl bound for the US actually originates in Venezuela.
'Fentanyl is not coming out of Venezuela. Fentanyl comes from Mexico,' said Christopher Hernandez-Roy, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, D.C., recently told NBC News. 'What's coming out of Venezuela is cocaine.'
Meanwhile, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has been seen dancing to anti-war songs at his rallies, signifying he does not want conflict with the US.
