Democrats have been pressing the Pentagon for weeks to release the video of the Sept. 2 mission where the U.S. military conducted four strikes in total. The first strike killed nine "narco-terrorists," severely damaged the boat and left the two survivors in the water.
The second strike, which was greenlit by Adm. Frank Bradley, now the commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, killed the two survivors. The third and fourth strikes sank the vessel, which was likely carrying cocaine.
On Tuesday, Hegseth said the Pentagon will not be making the full, unedited video of the attack public, emphasizing the need to protect the military's "sources and methods," but noted the full video will be shown to all members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees on Wednesday morning.
"In keeping with long-standing 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," the Pentagon chief told reporters after briefing senators on the U.S. military's ongoing lethal strikes against alleged drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio also briefed House members on the campaign.
Democrats left the briefings frustrated that the Trump administration did not show the full, unedited video of the Sept. 2 strikes.
"The administration came to this briefing empty-handed," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters on Tuesday. "That's the major question that we face. If they can't be transparent on this, how can you trust their transparency on all the other issues swirling about in the Caribbean?"
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), who attended the briefing, said officials pointed to "classification concerns" when arguing against releasing the full video to the public.
"It is hard to square the widespread routine prompt posting of detailed videos of every strike with a concern that posting a portion of the video of the first strike would violate a variety of classification concerns," Coons told reporters.
Hegseth has routinely shared clips of deadly boat strikes within hours of the operation being carried out, with some parts of the video typically blurred out to protect certain information.
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), a retired Naval officer who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the Trump administration was worried about how the public would respond to the video.
"Obviously, they have issues with what is in that video, and that's why they don't want everybody to see it," he said.
Reade the full report at thehill.com.
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