War Department Will Not Release Full ‘Top-Secret’ Video Of September Drug Boat Strike, Hegseth Says

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday that the Trump administration would not release the “top-secret” video of the September 2 drug boat strikes to the public as the administration’s approval of a second strike continues to face scrutiny.

Hegseth spoke to reporters after he and Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave senators a classified, closed-door briefing and said that the “full unedited” video would only be shown to lawmakers on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees on Wednesday.

“In keeping with longstanding 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,” Hegseth said.

Multiple lawmakers have called on Hegseth to release the full video showing the second strike on a suspected drug boat that was taken out by U.S. forces on September 2. Some Democrats have claimed that the U.S. military’s decision to order a second strike after survivors were spotted in the water constitutes a “war crime.”

The strikes on the suspected drug boat in September killed 11 “narcoterrorists” who were transporting drugs that the Trump administration believed would have ultimately landed on American shores. The second strike was ordered by Admiral Frank Bradley, the commander of U.S. Special Operations Command. Bradley is also set to brief lawmakers on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees on Wednesday.

Hegseth praised Bradley on Tuesday, saying he has “done a fantastic job, has made all the right calls.”

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President Donald Trump said earlier this month that he had “no problem” with the War Department releasing “whatever” it had, but last week, Trump walked back that comment and said, “Whatever Pete Hegseth wants to do is okay with me.”

Shortly after the strike, the Trump administration released a 29-second clip of the operation targeting a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean, but the clip made public by the War Department does not show the second strike, raising questions of why a second strike was necessary.

Some lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans, have already seen video of the second strike. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said he would not have “any problem” with releasing the footage to the public, but added that the War Department could want to keep it classified since the information could reveal too much to drug cartels about how the U.S. military is conducting the strikes.

“It’s not gruesome. I didn’t find it distressing or disturbing,” Cotton said. “It looks like any number of dozens of strikes we’ve seen on Jeeps and pickup trucks in the Middle East over the years.”

House Democrat Adam Smith, who also saw the video of the second strike, called it “deeply disturbing.”

Nearly 100 suspected drug-runners have been killed in at least 25 strikes ordered by the Trump administration in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean since September. The most recent strike on Monday killed eight men and took out three boats that the U.S. officials said were “engaged in narco-trafficking.”