Three days after the Pentagon denied it killed two survivors after an attack on an alleged drug-trafficking boat in early September, the White House and the Pentagon on Monday confirmed the second strike did indeed take place, and that it was authorized by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Rewind: “This entire narrative is completely false,” Hegseth’s chief spokesman, Sean Parnell, told the Washington Post , which reported the so-called “double-tap” strike ordered by the commander at the time, Navy Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley. That order came after Hegseth reportedly told Bradley to “kill everybody” on the boat. Hegseth himself responded on social media Friday, calling the Post ’s reporting “fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory.”

But on Monday, the White House’s press

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