{"id":51359,"date":"2025-12-17T10:45:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T16:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=51359"},"modified":"2025-12-18T00:48:49","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T06:48:49","slug":"gop-senators-break-with-hegseth-over-video-of-missile-strike-on-survivors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=51359","title":{"rendered":"GOP senators break with Hegseth over video of missile strike on survivors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Republican senators are openly questioning Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth\u2019s\u2002<\/u><\/a>decision not to release the full video of a Sept. 2 follow-up strike on two survivors of an initial military strike against a Venezuelan boat, second-guessing a key decision in the Trump administration\u2019s operations in the Caribbean Sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The battle between senators and the administration comes at a time when GOP lawmakers find themselves on the defensive over President Trump\u2019s increasingly aggressive actions against Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy bias would be to make it available,\u201d Sen. John Cornyn\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-Texas), a senior member of the Intelligence Committee, said of the video of the missile strike against two people who survived an initial attack on a Venezuelan boat in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat would be the best thing to do,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said making the video available would quiet Democratic accusations that Hegseth is trying to hide an atrocity on the high seas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cornyn said keeping the video secret is \u201chow conspiracy theories get spun up,\u201d but he also acknowledged \u201cit\u2019s his call,\u201d referring to Hegseth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Lindsey Graham\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-S.C.) said the video should be made widely available to members of Congress, something Hegseth has so far refused to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the video should be given to everybody in Congress,\u201d Graham told reporters when asked about whether the Department of Defense should share the video of the follow-up missile strike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think most Americans give a damn about the video. I\u2019d like all of us to see it,\u201d Graham added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hegseth told reporters after the briefing Tuesday the video was too sensitive to be shared with the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn keeping with long-standing Department of War policy, Department of Defense policy, of course we\u2019re not going to release a top-secret, full, unedited video of that to the general public,\u201d Hegseth told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secretary of State Marco Rubio\u2002<\/u><\/a>also participated in the classified briefing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Josh Hawley\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-Mo.) said he can understand why Hegseth does not want to release the full unedited video, but he questioned why the video couldn\u2019t be redacted in parts to protect sensitive information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do think that anything that can be edited \u2026 that can be released, I think that would be helpful. And the reason I say that is \u2014 I have not seen the videos, but those who have \u2026 tells me it really vindicates the secretary\u2019s position,\u201d Hawley added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf he can find a way to appropriately redact it that would allow the public to see the relevant parts, I think that would be great,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Thom Tillis\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-N.C.) has called on the administration to release the video of the second strike and reiterated his call for the administration to release all the unclassified files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe got to release the video. Look, we got to get the Epstein files released. We got to get any videos that do not in any way compromise mission integrity down there \u2014 just get the stuff out there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverybody\u2019s trying to think about what\u2019s in it. That\u2019s why it\u2019s so important to get the videos out there,\u201d he said. \u201cI just think we have to be as transparent as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer\u2002<\/u><\/a>(N.Y.) confronted Hegseth about his refusal to release the videos at Tuesday\u2019s briefing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He disputed Republicans\u2019 claims the footage exonerates Hegseth or the commander who oversaw the strike, Navy Adm. Frank Bradley, who briefed senior lawmakers about the incident earlier this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis morning, I demanded in front of every senator to Hegseth\u2019s face that he let every senator see the unedited video of what happened on Sept. 2. I\u2019ve seen it. It turns your stomach. It is awful, and people should see it,\u201d Schumer told reporters Tuesday after the briefing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senior military officials are scheduled to show the full video of the Sept. 2 strike to members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senate Majority Leader John Thune\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-S.D.) declined to say Tuesday whether he agreed or disagreed with Hegseth\u2019s decision not to release the video despite calls from Republican and Democratic senators to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have \u2026 left that up to the Senate Armed Services Committee,\u201d he said Tuesday. \u201cI\u2019m going to trust their judgment on that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-Miss.) and Sen. Jack Reed\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D-R.I.), the ranking member of the panel, have pressed the Pentagon to make the video available to their entire committee, according to Senate sources familiar with their efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is almost no transparency in this administration, and that reveals itself more than anything on revealing what happened on Sept. 2,\u201d Schumer said after the briefing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He argued the release of the video is important \u201cto see if we were obeying the law \u2014 we\u2019re a law-abiding country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also important because what\u2019s going on in the Caribbean is unprecedented,\u201d he said, warning \u201cit could lead to another endless war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Republican senators, including Graham, one of Trump\u2019s closest allies, feel they don\u2019t have enough information about Trump\u2019s broader goals related to Venezuela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost Americans want to know what\u2019s going to happen next. I want to know what\u2019s going to happen next. Is it the policy to take Maduro down? It should be, if it\u2019s not. And if he goes, what\u2019s going to happen next?\u201d Graham told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019d like a better answer as to what happens when Maduro goes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democrats and some national security experts say the follow-up strike on survivors may constitute a war crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democrats argue Trump hasn\u2019t provided adequate legal justification for the use of lethal force against boats suspected of smuggling drugs \u2014 something that traditionally falls under the jurisdiction of the Coast Guard and the Drug Enforcement Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republican senators are openly questioning Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth\u2019s\u2002decision not to release the full video of a Sept. 2 follow-up strike on two survivors of an initial military strike against a Venezuelan boat, second-guessing a key decision in the Trump administration\u2019s operations in the Caribbean Sea. The battle between senators and the administration comes at a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":51360,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1226,31240,1970,6064,2545],"class_list":["post-51359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-attack","tag-hegseth","tag-missile","tag-survivor","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51359"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51363,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51359\/revisions\/51363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/51360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}