Hegseth Says ‘Of Course’ He Won’t Release Full Video of Strike on Drug Boat Survivors

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday that he “of course” will not release the video of the U.S. military’s second strike on survivors of an alleged drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean Sea from early September, an act critics are calling a “war crime.” Hegseth made the comments after briefing lawmakers with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the Trump administration’s ongoing military moves off the coast of Venezuela.

Rubio spoke first, saying he was on the Hill to “provide updates on this counter-drug mission, which is focused on dismantling the infrastructure of these terrorist organizations that are operating in our hemisphere, undermining the security of Americans, killing Americans, poisoning Americans. And this has been a highly successful mission that’s ongoing and continued, and we’re pleased to be here today to update Congress on how that’s developing and how that is moving forward. As I said, I believe it’s our 22nd, 23rd such engagement, certainly at least the 4th or 5th that I’ve been involved in. And those will remain and be ongoing.”

Hegseth then added, “I would just echo that. It is the 22nd bipartisan briefing we’ve had on a highly successful mission to counter designated terrorist organizations—cartels bringing weapons, weapons meaning drugs, to the American people and poisoning the American people for far too long.” He added:

So 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. We’re also going to tomorrow allow the HASC and SASC to see the unedited video of September 2nd, alongside Admiral Bradley, who has done a fantastic job, has made all the right calls, and we’re glad he’ll be there to do it. But in keeping with long-standing Department of Defense policy, of course we’re not going to release a top-secret, full, unedited video of that to the general public. HASC and SASC, appropriate committees, will see it, but not the general public.

CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer then noted, “All right. So there you have it. The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. And it’s interesting, Pamela, he said the full video, unedited, won’t be seen by the American public, but by select members of the House and Senate.”

“Yeah, and that is notable. I mean, we should note that DOD has been releasing videos of the boat strikes, but they have been edited. He did not clarify whether there could be an edited version of that second boat strike released to the public. But that is definitely news because there had been calls for the whole video to be released. Even President Trump initially said the video should be released, and then he backtracked on that and claimed he hadn’t said it, even though he had,” continued Pamela Brown, adding:

And so we’re getting a bit of news here after this briefing with House members. Think about this: we just heard from Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, who felt like they weren’t being transparent and forthcoming on all the information.

“Yeah, they want these videos to be released. The president initially said they would be, but then he backtracked after Hegseth said they’re not going to be released necessarily, and they’re sticking by that, at least for now,” concluded Blitzer.

Watch the clip above via CNN.