Hegseth Says Video of Sept. 2 Boat Strike Will Be Released to Select Lawmakers

WASHINGTON—Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said on Dec. 16 that the Pentagon will release to select lawmakers the full video of the September strike on a drug trafficking boat that killed survivors of an initial strike, but did not say whether all members of Congress would be able to see it.

The video will not be released to the general public, Hegseth said.

The Sept. 2 boat strike has generated controversy on Capitol Hill. Some Republicans have defended the strike as necessary in the Trump administration’s pressure campaign on drug trafficking rings in the South Caribbean, as well as what some lawmakers said increasingly appears to be an attempt to force Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power.

Democrats have criticized the military strikes, particularly the second one on Sept. 2, saying that it targeted shipwrecked survivors who otherwise would not have been able to conduct further operations. President Donald Trump has also repeatedly stated that he may approve land strikes within Venezuela soon, as an escalation of previous efforts to target drug traffickers by sea.

“We’re proud of what we’re doing, able to lay it out very directly to these senators and soon to the House, but it’s all classified. We can’t talk about it now,” Hegseth told reporters during a press conference with Secretary of State Marco Rubio after leaving a closed-door briefing with senators.

“In keeping with longstanding Department of War policy, Department of Defense Policy, of course, we’re not going to release a top secret, full, unedited video of that to the general public … appropriate committees will see it, but not the general [public].”

Immediately after the briefing, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters that he believes the Pentagon should give all members of Congress access to the video, but said what appears to him as a pressure campaign from the Trump administration to force Maduro from power is a much bigger question on the minds of lawmakers and the general public alike.

While the Trump administration has never publicly stated it is seeking regime change in Venezuela, many lawmakers, including Graham, have said that the Pentagon’s repeated targeting of drug boats near the nation’s coast and the U.S. president’s vows to soon escalate to land strikes look like a step towards taking Maduro from power by force.

Graham said there’s “no doubt” in his mind that the president has the legal authority to strike the boats and compared it to then-President George H.W. Bush “literally invad[ing]” Panama in 1989 to seek regime change and imprison the president of that country on similar allegations of being a “narco terrorist” backing drug trafficking groups.

However, the key Senate Republican said he received an insufficient answer from Hegseth and Rubio in the briefing on “what’s going to happen next” if the administration is attempting to remove Maduro from power and succeeds.

“If he’s still standing when this is over, this is a fatal, major mistake to our standing in the world … that’s the worst possible signal you could send to Russia, China, Iran,” Graham told reporters.

“So I asked the question, what happens when he leaves? And they say that, ‘This is counter drugs. It’d be nice if he left.’ That’s not a good answer.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) criticized Hegseth after the briefing for refusing to make a full, unedited video of the strike available to all senators and a more appropriate, edited version viewable for the general public.

“If they can’t be transparent on this, how can you trust their transparency on all the other issues swirling about in the Caribbean?” Schumer told reporters. “The administration came to this briefing empty-handed.”

The Senate Democratic leader said he saw the video of the second strike that killed the survivors of the initial strike. “It was deeply troubling,” Schumer said.

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a long-time critic of Trump, said he will make a request on the Senate floor to unanimously release the video of the boat strike to all members of Congress and the broader public.

“The public should see this,” Schiff said.

Following the closed briefings on Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters that Trump has the authority as commander in chief to “conduct foreign relations” and that the information Hegseth and Rubio provided to lawmakers “was very helpful.”

“The president determined that the United States is in non-international armed conflict … with designated terrorist organizations and their affiliates who have evolved into complex structures with financial means and parliamentary capabilities needed to operate with impunity, engage in violence and terrorism that presents a clear and present danger to the security of America and threaten other nations in our hemisphere,” Johnson said.

When asked if he’s worried that the Trump administration may be inching toward a potential conflict with Venezuela, Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said he doesn’t “know what we’re doing yet” with the South American nation.

“The whole focus in there was on the narcotics being shipped using these boats on Venezuela,” he told reporters after the briefings.

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) said he is “absolutely” worried that these boat strikes could result in the United States creeping closer to war with Venezuela.

“And there’s no commitment to coming to Congress … for a declaration of war before they conduct ground operations, if that’s clearly their intent,” he told reporters.