(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters on Tuesday that he won’t release the full unedited version of video showing a Sept. 2 attack on a suspected drug boat that killed 11 people, calling the video “top secret” and said releasing that version to the public would violate “longstanding Department of War policy.”
Democrats balked at the explanation, which he also shared during a closed-door briefing with Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Capitol Hill. They note that Hegseth, President Donald Trump and the U.S. Southern Command for several weeks have been posting edited clips of some two dozen boat attacks on their social media accounts.
“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 told reporters. Lawmakers on the House and Senate armed services committees and those overseeing appropriations will see it, Hegseth added, “but not the general public.”
Some Republicans said they thought the video should at least be shared more broadly in Congress in the interest in transparency and because it would show a lawful operation.
“I think the video should be given to everybody in Congress,” said South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a longtime ally of Trump.
“Release it. Make your own decisions,” he later added, saying “I’d like all of us to see it.”
At issue is whether the Sept. 2 military strike on the alleged drug boat amounted to a war crime, as some lawmakers have suggested. Officials have confirmed there were four military strikes against the boat — the first strike killing nine of the 11 people aboard. Some 40 minutes later, a second strike was ordered to kill the remaining two survivors. Two more strikes were ordered to sink the boat, officials say.
Trump initially said he would release the video, telling reporters on Dec. 3 “whatever they have, we’d certainly release, no problem.” Trump later backtracked, saying he would defer to Hegseth.
Some lawmakers have seen extended portions of the video of the strikes in a classified briefing earlier this month, but described the state of the survivors before being killed in a second strike in starkly different terms. Democrats insisted the survivors were helpless and should have been rescued to comply with international laws that call for either sides in a conflict to help combatants who fall overboard or are shipwrecked. Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, however, said the survivors were trying to “flip” the boat “so they could stay in the fight.”
Adm. Mitch Bradley, who ordered the strikes, was expected to return to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to brief the House and Senate armed services committees behind closed doors, two officials told ABC News on Tuesday.
After two weeks of saying he was reviewing the matter, Hegseth told lawmakers during the closed-door briefing on Tuesday that he has no plans to do so. He said Adm. Mitch Bradley, who ordered the strikes, would share the video with members of the House and Senate armed services committees on Wednesday.
He added that Bradley “has done a fantastic job, has made all the right calls, and we’re glad he’ll be there to do it.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that if classification was a problem, Hegseth could at least share the video with every senator in a classified setting.
“Every senator is entitled to see it,” Schumer said.
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