JUST IN: Pentagon Withholds Unedited Strike Video, Calling It Top Secret

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Tuesday the Pentagon will not release the “top secret, full, unedited video” of a controversial September strike on a suspected drug boat, but confirmed that lawmakers on key committees will be allowed to review the footage.

“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 after a bipartisan, classified Senate briefing on the strikes.

Hegseth did not take questions and did not say whether a redacted or edited version of the video would eventually be made public.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also attended the closed-door briefing, spoke briefly with reporters afterward, saying he and Hegseth were heading to the House for a similar classified session with lawmakers there.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, said after viewing classified footage of the incident that the military’s actions were “entirely appropriate.”

“The individuals on that vessel were not helpless castaways. They were drug runners on a capsized drug boat and, by all indications, attempting to recover it so they could continue pushing drugs to kill Americans,” Johnson told reporters.

Johnson added that “another vessel” was nearby and that the two survivors were “waving their arms” toward it in an apparent effort to continue their “mission.”

The strike traces back to Sept. 2, when the Trump administration carried out its first publicly acknowledged attack on a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean Sea. The operation later sparked controversy after a second missile strike killed the only two survivors of the initial hit.

The White House confirmed and defended the follow-up strike on Dec. 1, as the administration ramps up efforts to disrupt narcotics trafficking into the United States. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Hegseth authorized the operation, while U.S. Special Operations Command chief Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley ordered and directed the second strike.

“On September 2nd, Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes,” Leavitt said. “Admiral Bradley worked well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated.”

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