President Donald Trump said on Dec. 8 that he would let Secretary of War Pete Hegseth decide whether to release the video of a second strike on a drug-smuggling boat in the South Caribbean that killed two occupants who survived an initial attack on Sept. 2.
Trump previously told reporters on Dec. 3 that he didn’t know what video the Department of War had of the strike, but said that “whatever they have, we’d certainly release, no problem.”
A reporter brought up that remark during a Dec. 8 press conference, and pressed Trump on whether he would instruct Hegseth to release footage of the second strike from the Sept. 2 incident off the coast of Venezuela. Trump said: “Whatever [Hegseth] decides is OK with me.”
“That was a boat loaded up with drugs. I saw the video. They were trying to turn the boat back to where it could float. And we didn’t want to see that because that boat was loaded up with drugs,” he added.
Hegseth told congressional leaders in a Dec. 9 classified briefing that he is still considering whether to release the footage, reported The Associated Press. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has threatened to block Hegseth’s travel budget if he refused to release the video.
Speaking at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California on Dec. 6, Hegseth said the video was being reviewed but did not indicate whether it would be released.
“We’re reviewing it right now to make sure sources, methods. I mean, it’s an ongoing operation, TTPs [tactics, techniques, and procedures], we got operators out there doing this right now,” he said.
“So, whatever we were to decide to release, we’d have to be very responsible about. We’re reviewing that right now.”
The Sept. 2 strike was the U.S. military’s first strike on drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean amid the Trump administration’s efforts to curb drug trafficking into the United States.
The White House said last week that Navy Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley ordered a second strike during the incident, which killed two survivors from the initial strike.
Democrats and other critics say such strikes may have potentially violated international law if shipwrecked survivors were targeted in a subsequent strike.
Hegseth said on Dec. 6 that he would have made the same call to conduct a follow-up strike on the boat.
The Pentagon chief stated that he was told after the initial strike that “there had to be a re-attack because there were a couple folks who could still be in the fight.”
“Access to radios. There was a link-up point of another potential boat. Drugs were still there. They were actively interacting with them,” he said.
“I said, Roger, sounds good. From what I understood then and what I understand now, I fully support that strike. I would have made the same call myself.”
In a Truth Social post announcing the Sept. 2 strike, Trump said the vessel was operated by the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua, designated a foreign terrorist organization by the federal government, and was en route to the United States with illegal drugs. A total of 11 occupants were killed in the strike.
Jacob Burg contributed to this report.
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