US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday there are no plans to release the full unedited video of September 2 strikes on a drug trafficking boat in the Caribbean that fuelled concerns about the Trump administration’s plans for Venezuela.
Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio conducted briefings on Tuesday for every member of the Senate, responding to lawmakers’ demands for more information about a three-and-a-half-month-long campaign of more than 20 strikes against boats in the Caribbean and Pacific that have killed more than 80 people.
On Monday, the US military struck three vessels in the Pacific, killing eight people. "In keeping with long-standing 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 at Capitol Hill.
The two cabinet secretaries held a similar briefing for the full House of Representatives. Concerns about the strikes increased after it became public that the commander overseeing the operation ordered a second strike that killed two survivors on September 2.
US President Donald Trump initially said he was open to the video being made public, but has since deferred to Hegseth on whether it should be released or not.
Democrats left the Senate briefing saying it had been too short and that the officials from Trump’s Republican administration had not seemed prepared to thoroughly answer questions.
Republicans generally praised Trump’s action, which the administration says is intended to fight trafficking in drugs responsible for the deaths of Americans.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham called for a change in Venezuela’s leadership, saying it would reflect badly on the US to have conducted such a long and large campaign if illegitimate Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro remains in power.
"If Maduro is what they say he is, and I believe them, he needs to go. It should be the policy of the United States that when this is over, he's no longer standing," Graham told reporters.
In wide-ranging interviews with Vanity Fair, Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff, said that the boat strikes were aimed at putting pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
"(Trump) wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle," Vanity Fair quoted her saying in an article published on Tuesday.
In a post on social media, Wiles called the Vanity Fair story, "a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history," saying it omitted important context and selectively quoted her to create a negative narrative.
The Trump administration has been building up forces in the Caribbean, including deploying an aircraft carrier, warships, and F-35 aircraft.
Trump this month released his National Security Strategy, arguing that the US should revive the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine, which declared the Western Hemisphere to be Washington’s zone of influence.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Idrees Ali; additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Ryan Patrick Jones; Editing by Caitlin Webber, Rod Nickel and Nia Williams)