President Donald Trump is backing away from his pledge to release the full video of a deadly U.S. boat strike near Venezuela. At the same time, Congress is moving to withhold part of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget until the Pentagon hands over the unedited footage to lawmakers.
Trump walks back his ‘no problem’ promise
Last week in the Oval Office, Trump told reporters that “whatever they have, we’d certainly release. No problem,” when asked about unedited footage of the Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean, and a follow-on strike that killed two survivors.
On Monday, though, he changed tone.
Pressed again in the Cabinet Room about releasing the full video, Trump told a reporter, “I didn’t say that. You said that, I didn’t say that. This is ABC fake news.” When the reporter followed up, Trump deflected to his defense secretary. “Whatever Hegseth wants to do is OK with me,” he added, saying that he would not order Hegseth to release the footage and was “fine” with whatever Hegseth decides.
“They were trying to turn the boat back to where it could float,” Trump said Monday. “We don’t want to see that because that boat was loaded up with drugs.”
Congress uses defense bill as leverage
Lawmakers in both parties are now using their biggest annual defense bill to force the Pentagon’s hand.
Buried more than 800 pages into the 3,086-page National Defense Authorization Act, the compromise bill would freeze a quarter of Hegseth’s office travel budget until the House and Senate Armed Services Committees receive unedited video of strikes on suspected narco-terrorist boats in U.S. Southern Command’s area of responsibility, including the Sept. 2 operation.
The same provision also requires the Pentagon to deliver a stack of overdue reports, including “lessons learned” from the war in Ukraine, before the full travel funds are released.
Congressional leaders unveiled the bill Sunday. It authorizes nearly $901 billion in defense spending and is expected to clear the House and then the Senate without changes.
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Why the footage matters
The pressure comes after revelations that two survivors of the Sept. 2 strike were killed in a follow-up hit. Two sources familiar with the video have told CBS News the men were waving overhead before they were killed, an action some experts and lawmakers warn could amount to a war crime.
Hegseth has publicly defended the operation and said Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley made the final call on the second strike. Top Pentagon officials have already shown the full footage to a small group of lawmakers in classified briefings, but those who saw it sharply disagree on what it shows.
Some Republicans say it vindicates the military’s version of events. But Democrats say the video raises serious legal and ethical questions and want it released more broadly.
Since early September, the U.S. military has carried out more than 20 attacks on alleged drug boats, killing at least 87 people. The administration argues the targets are “narco-terrorists” bringing drugs into the United States.
