Demands to Release Full Video of Deadly US Boat Strike Grow After Congressional Briefing
“The Department of Defense has no choice but to release the complete, unedited footage,” said Sen. Jack Reed.
US Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) speaks with reporters in the US Capitol in Washington, DC on December 2, 2025.
(Photo by Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
Brett Wilkins
Dec 04, 2025
COMMON DREAMS
Calls mounted Thursday for the Trump administration to release the full video of a September US airstrike on a boat allegedly transporting drugs in the Caribbean Sea following a briefing between Pentagon officials and select lawmakers that left some Democrats with more questions than answers.
“I am deeply disturbed by what I saw this morning,” Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said after the briefing.“The Department of Defense has no choice but to release the complete, unedited footage of the September 2 strike, as the president has agreed to do.”
Hegseth Says 6 More Men Killed in Latest Boat Bombings
Reed’s remarks came after Adm. Frank Bradley and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan Caine briefed some members of the Senate and House Armed Services and Intelligence committees on the so-called “double-tap” strike, in which nine people were killed in the initial bombing and two survivors clinging to the burning wreckage of the vessel were slain in second attack.
Lawmakers who attended the briefing said that US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth allegedly did not give an order to “kill everyone” aboard the boat. However, legal experts and congressional critics contend that the strikes are inherently illegal under international law.
“This did not reduce my concerns at all—or anyone else’s,” Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), who attended the briefing, told the New Republic’s Greg Sargent in response to the findings regarding Hegseth’s actions. “This is a big, big problem, and we need a full investigation.”
“I think that video should be public,” Smith added.
The Trump administration has tried to justify the strikes to Congress by claiming that the US is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, which some legal scholars and lawmakers have disputed.
Cardozo Law School professor of international law Rebecca Ingbe told Time in a Thursday interview that “there is no actual armed conflict here, so this is murder.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said Thursday that “clearly, in my view, very likely a war crime was committed here.”
“We don’t use our military to help intervene when it comes to drug running, and what the Trump administration has done is manufactured cause for conflict with respect to going after drug boats and engaging in extrajudicial killing when the real aim is clearly regime change in Venezuela,” he added, alluding to President Donald Trump’s massive military deployment and threats to invade the oil-rich South American nation.
At least 83 people have been killed in 21 disclosed strikes on boats the Trump administration claims—without releasing evidence—were transporting drugs in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. South American leaders and relatives of survivors say that at least some of the victims of the US bombings were fishermen with no ties to narco-trafficking.
Reed said that Thursday’s briefing “confirmed my worst fears about the nature of the Trump administration’s military activities, and demonstrates exactly why the Senate Armed Services Committee has repeatedly requested—and been denied—fundamental information, documents, and facts about this operation.”
“This must, and will be, only the beginning of our investigation into this incident,” he vowed.
After the briefing, US Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.)—the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence—called the footage “one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service.”
“Any American who sees the video that I saw will see its military attacking shipwrecked sailors,” he added.
Thursday’s calls followed similar demands from skeptical Democrats, some of whom accused the Trump administration of withholding evidence.
“Pete Hegseth should release the full tapes of the September 2 attack,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said on the upper chamber floor on Tuesday. “Both the first and second strike. Not a clip. Not some edited or redacted snippet. The full unedited tapes of each strike must be released so the American people can see what happened with their own eyes.”
“Pete Hegseth said he did nothing wrong,” he added. “So prove it.”
Nicole Charky-Chami
December 4, 2025
RAW STORY
CNN anchor Jake Tapper spoke with Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, who said the video was one of the worst things that he has seen. (Screenshot/CNN)
A top intel committee lawmaker warned Thursday that the video showing a second strike on an alleged drug boat off the coast of Venezuela appeared to confirm the U.S. committed a war crime.
The video from a Sept. 2 attack in the Caribbean Sea was shown to lawmakers during a briefing with Admiral Frank M. 'Mitch' Bradley and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper spoke with Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, who said the video was one of the
Tapper asked him if the video gave evidence that it was a war crime.
"I want to be careful with my language here. You know, we didn't get the audio. But that's sure what it looked like to me," Himes said. "And again, I don't want to get into the details, but I want you to imagine two individuals, clinging to wreckage in the middle of a vast ocean without any tools, without any weapons. Look, if this guy had had an AK-47 or an RPG or was, you know, calling in air strikes or anything else, it would be a totally different thing."
The video has been in question since reports surfaced that survivors were targeted after the first strike. The Trump administration has faced calls for answers after it was reported by The Washington Post that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the killing of two survivors of one of the controversial drug vessel bombings.
“Any American who sees the video that I saw will see the United States military attacking shipwrecked sailors — bad guys, bad guys, but attacking shipwrecked sailors,” Himes told reporters Thursday following the briefing.
"Yes, they were carrying drugs. They were not in the position to continue their mission in any way,” he said.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper spoke with Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, who said the video was one of the worst things that he has seen. (Screenshot/CNN)
A top intel committee lawmaker warned Thursday that the video showing a second strike on an alleged drug boat off the coast of Venezuela appeared to confirm the U.S. committed a war crime.
The video from a Sept. 2 attack in the Caribbean Sea was shown to lawmakers during a briefing with Admiral Frank M. 'Mitch' Bradley and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper spoke with Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, who said the video was one of the
Tapper asked him if the video gave evidence that it was a war crime.
"I want to be careful with my language here. You know, we didn't get the audio. But that's sure what it looked like to me," Himes said. "And again, I don't want to get into the details, but I want you to imagine two individuals, clinging to wreckage in the middle of a vast ocean without any tools, without any weapons. Look, if this guy had had an AK-47 or an RPG or was, you know, calling in air strikes or anything else, it would be a totally different thing."
The video has been in question since reports surfaced that survivors were targeted after the first strike. The Trump administration has faced calls for answers after it was reported by The Washington Post that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the killing of two survivors of one of the controversial drug vessel bombings.
“Any American who sees the video that I saw will see the United States military attacking shipwrecked sailors — bad guys, bad guys, but attacking shipwrecked sailors,” Himes told reporters Thursday following the briefing.
"Yes, they were carrying drugs. They were not in the position to continue their mission in any way,” he said.
Strike survivors deserved death for 'trying to flip their boat back over': GOP senator
David Edwards
December 4, 2025
C-SPAN/screen grab
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) insisted that two survivors of the strike on a small alleged drug boat deserved to die because they were trying to "flip" the vessel back over after it was hit.
Following a briefing from Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley on Thursday, Cotton defended the Pentagon's decision to continue firing on the boat after the first strike.
"The second strike and the third and the fourth strike on September 2nd were entirely lawful and needful, and they were exactly what we would expect our military commanders to do," the senator insisted.
"What exactly did you see in terms of the video of the second strike?" one reporter asked. "Were there survivors?"
"I saw two survivors trying to flip a boat, loaded with drugs, bound for the United States, back over, so they could stay in the fight," Cotton replied. "And potentially, given all the contacts we heard, of other narco-terrorist boats in the area coming to their aid to recover their cargo and recover those narco-terrorists, and just like you would blow up a boat, off of the Somali coast or the Yemeni coast and you'd come back and strike it again if it still had terrorists and it still had explosives or missiles."
The boat, however, did not have explosives or missiles and was too small to pose a threat to the U.S. mainland from that distance, many experts have said.
"I didn't see anything disturbing about it," Cotton told the reporters. "And we're going to continue to strike these boats until cartels learn their lesson that their drugs are no longer coming to America."
"But Congressman Himes said that according to what he saw in that video, the two people who survived trying to get back on the boat, there was no way they could have conducted further operations or anything like that?" a reporter pressed.
"He may be okay with drug boats running to America," Cotton snapped. "I just disagree with that."
"If you think these strikes are justified and righteous, as I do, and I want them to continue, then of course the second strike, when you have two survivors, who are trying to flip their boat back over and continue on their mission, remain in the battle," he added.
David Edwards
December 4, 2025
RAW STORY
C-SPAN/screen grab
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) insisted that two survivors of the strike on a small alleged drug boat deserved to die because they were trying to "flip" the vessel back over after it was hit.
Following a briefing from Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley on Thursday, Cotton defended the Pentagon's decision to continue firing on the boat after the first strike.
"The second strike and the third and the fourth strike on September 2nd were entirely lawful and needful, and they were exactly what we would expect our military commanders to do," the senator insisted.
"What exactly did you see in terms of the video of the second strike?" one reporter asked. "Were there survivors?"
"I saw two survivors trying to flip a boat, loaded with drugs, bound for the United States, back over, so they could stay in the fight," Cotton replied. "And potentially, given all the contacts we heard, of other narco-terrorist boats in the area coming to their aid to recover their cargo and recover those narco-terrorists, and just like you would blow up a boat, off of the Somali coast or the Yemeni coast and you'd come back and strike it again if it still had terrorists and it still had explosives or missiles."
The boat, however, did not have explosives or missiles and was too small to pose a threat to the U.S. mainland from that distance, many experts have said.
"I didn't see anything disturbing about it," Cotton told the reporters. "And we're going to continue to strike these boats until cartels learn their lesson that their drugs are no longer coming to America."
"But Congressman Himes said that according to what he saw in that video, the two people who survived trying to get back on the boat, there was no way they could have conducted further operations or anything like that?" a reporter pressed.
"He may be okay with drug boats running to America," Cotton snapped. "I just disagree with that."
"If you think these strikes are justified and righteous, as I do, and I want them to continue, then of course the second strike, when you have two survivors, who are trying to flip their boat back over and continue on their mission, remain in the battle," he added.
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