Hegseth rejects release of full boat strike footage

WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 02: U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (2nd-R) reacts during a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on December 02, 2025 in Washington, DC. A bipartisan Congressional investigation has begun regarding Secretary of War Pete Hegseth's role in ordering U.S. military strikes on small boats in the waters off Venezuela that have killed scores of people, which Hegseth said are intended "to stop lethal drugs, destroy narco-boats and kill the narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people.” (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

'We're not going to release a top secret, full, unedited video of that to the general public'

(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

What happened

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Tuesday rebuffed bipartisan calls to release video of the military killing two survivors of a Sept. 2 missile strike on a speedboat allegedly carrying cocaine across the Caribbean. “We’re not going to release a top secret, full, unedited video of that to the general public,” he told reporters after a briefing for senators. And in Congress, only “appropriate committees will see it.”

Who said what

Hegseth and other top officials briefed the full House and Senate Tuesday “amid bipartisan pressure for more transparency” and growing “questions about the nature and legality” of the boat strikes, The New York Times said. “Most Republicans exiting the briefing backed the Trump administration’s decision to limit access” to the full video, but Democrats said the administration’s excuse about protecting military secrets was undermined by the 20 boat strike clips it had already posted online, including of the initial Sept. 2 attack. “They just don’t want to reveal the part that suggests war crimes,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

Lawmakers from both parties agreed the briefing “left them in the dark” about President Donald Trump’s “goals when it comes to President Nicolás Maduro” and Venezuela, The Associated Press said. Hegseth told reporters the boat bombing campaign was focused on eradicating cartels “poisoning the American people.” But White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles told Vanity Fair that Trump “wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle.”

What next?

Hegseth said the Pentagon would show the full, unedited video to the House and Senate armed services committees today. The Senate was “on the brink of giving final approval to a defense policy bill that would freeze” a quarter of Hegseth’s travel budget “if he failed to give Congress unedited video of all the strikes, as well as the orders that led to them,” the Times said.

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Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.