More on Sen. Kaine's "war crimes" claim

Eleanor Watson, thank you so much for that. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump says he has great confidence in Mr. Hegseth. In fact, our own Weijia Jiang, traveling with the President aboard Air Force One, asked Mr. Trump about those strikes. Listen. Well, number one, I don't know that that happened. And Pete said he did not want them. He didn't even know what people were talking about. So we'll look into it. But no, I wouldn't have wanted that, not a second strike. The first strike was very lethal. It was fine. And if there were two people around. But Pete said that didn't happen. I have great confidence.

Are you saying there's no second strike? I don't know. I'm going to find out about it. But Pete said he did not order the death of those two men. Do you have any concerns about how those boat strikes have been carried out at all? Very little, because you can see the boats, you can see the drugs and the boats, and each boat is responsible for killing 25,000 Americans. So they're doing an amazing job. And we're getting-- just look at the numbers. The amount of drugs coming into our country by sea is infinitesimal compared to what it was just a few months ago. And think of this. Each boat, on average, is responsible for the death of 25,000 Americans. So let's take the conversation to the White House and CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Nancy Cordes. A lot of reporting here, Nancy. The President says that he himself would not have wanted that second strike. Where do you see the scrutiny on that point today when the President says he'd like to find out? Well, members of Congress say they want to find out. And what's so unusual about this situation, Reed, is that you now have the Republican led Senate and House Armed Services Committees demanding answers from the Pentagon and announcing that they are going to be launching investigations. That's really rare. You don't typically see Republicans in Congress holding the Republican led administration's feet to the fire in quite this way. So the question is, how far are they going to take it? Are they going to demand that the Defense Secretary come down to Capitol Hill to testify? Are they going to demand that the Pentagon release the video of that second strike if it did occur? One of the things that was frustrating to lawmakers when they heard about this story was that they were briefed about this initial strike when it happened back in September. And Mike Turner, a Republican of Ohio who was on Face the Nation yesterday, told me he wasn't told about this follow on strike, that they weren't briefed about that. So there are going to be questions about whether lawmakers got the full story. And that's on top of concerns that lawmakers have already had about the legality of these boat strikes. Well, there's also the reporting of the President talking about Venezuela's airspace. Who does this apply to and what's the reasoning behind closing airspace over Venezuela? That is still a mystery, Reed. The President posted this weekend that airlines and pilots should get out of the way, get out of Venezuelan airspace, basically, for their own safety. But then when Weijia asked the President about that on Air Force One last night, he didn't provide any context. Many were wondering if that meant that there was an imminent US military strike about to take place. Take a listen to what she asked him and his response. Mr. President, on Venezuela, can you tell us more about why the airspace above Venezuela should be considered-- Yeah, because we consider Venezuela to be not a very friendly country. They send millions of if people, really, and probably a number in excess of that. And a lot of those people shouldn't be in our country, from jails, from gangs, from drug dealers, from all of the people that came into our country who shouldn't have been in our country, causing a lot of problems, and drugs. Does your warning mean that an airstrike is imminent or should we not read it that way? Don't read anything into it. So a pretty vague response there. No real explanation for why he said that airlines should get out of Venezuelan airspace. No indication of an imminent ground strike or a strike from the air. But we do know that the president is now planning to meet with cabinet officials, including the Defense Secretary, here at the White House, later on today to discuss the next steps in Venezuela.

All right, Nancy Cordes chasing the answers there and competing with the leaf blower very well behind you, my friend. Good to see you on CBS News 24/7.