U.S. Senator Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., walks to a closed briefing with the Senate Armed Services Committee at the U.S. Capitol on December 2, 2025 in Washington, DC. Senators attending the long-planned briefing on naval aviation mishaps were asked by reporters about the recent U.S. attack on a ship in the Caribbean. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Tuesday stepped up their demands for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to release unedited video of a controversial follow-up attack by U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea that killed two shipwrecked people.
The Sept. 2 attack has led to criticism and questions about Hegseth’s role in ordering a commander to fire additional ammunition to kill two men clinging to the wreckage of a suspected drug smuggling boat after the vessel burst into flames in an initial attack.
“Why wouldn’t they release it? They were so excited, the Department of Defense and Pete Hegseth, so excited to release all these videos up to this part, and then, ‘Oh no, we can’t release that,'” Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., told States Newsroom.
President Donald Trump posted a 29-second edited video of the Sept. 2 strike on his social media platform Truth Social that did not show the survivors.
Several military experts argue The follow-up attack in early September violated international law and Pentagon law Martial law that shipwrecked survivors should be rescued and not killed.
The follow-up attack in question was the first of nearly two dozen U.S. attacks on boats in the Caribbean Sea, all of which the government said were drug smuggling operations. The operations – the latest kill four on December 4th – killing 87 people, according to multiple media reports. Hegseth posted videos of some of them.
“Illegal Orders” video.
Six Democratic lawmakers, including Kelly, posted their own video on social media on Nov. 18 reminding dynamic military members that they have the right to refuse “illegal orders.” All six had served in the military or worked in secret services.
Trump accused lawmakers: “riotous behavior“And Hegseth opened a Navy investigation and the FBI got involvedand even threatened Kelly, a member of the Armed Services Committee who reached the rank of captain before leaving the military, with possible arrest by this week.
“Based on what has been said publicly, the Secretary of the Navy is scheduled to present a plan to the Secretary of Defense tomorrow,” Kelly said, adding that nothing had been “officially communicated” to him.
“I mean, I’ve also been retired from the Navy for 14 years. So okay, maybe they don’t have my number anymore. Maybe that’s the problem. But actually the real problem is that they’re a bunch of clowns that have no idea what they’re doing,” Kelly said.
Sen. Roger Wicker, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told the State Newsroom that he is “still listening to concerns” about releasing the unedited footage of the follow-up attack.
“There are still people thinking about the implications of whether it would put some of our troops in harm’s way. The video contained classified items and that is still under review,” the Mississippi Republican said.
Senators informed
Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to brief senior senators on the attacks on suspected drug boats and the deployment of U.S. Navy ships off the coast of Venezuela.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said afterwards: “It was a very unsatisfactory briefing.”
“I asked Defense Secretary Hegseth if he would show every member of Congress the unedited video of the September 2 strike. His response: ‘We have to study it.’ In my opinion, they have studied it long enough. Congress should be able to see it,” said Schumer, a New York Democrat.
He told reporters before the briefing that he planned to “confront Secretary Hegseth about exactly what the hell is going on in the Caribbean.”
Schumer later said he was “very, very concerned” that the administration would start a land war in the South American country.
Asked whether he supported releasing the unedited video, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters he was “pleased” with the committee’s investigation, which is already underway.
“As I said, the appropriate committees, the Armed Services Committee, both Democrats and Republicans, have had an opportunity to look at this video. What they do with it, I leave it to their discretion. But I think any member who wants to see that would probably get that opportunity,” the South Dakota Republican said.
Kelly told States Newsroom he “guesses” all members of the Senate Armed Services Committee will be able to see the video by next week.
Hegseth’s travels were slowed down
Lawmakers included a provision in the annual defense policy bill to withhold a quarter of Hegseth’s travel budget until the Defense Department releases unedited video of the “double-tap” attack.
The House and Senate Armed Services Committees both launched bipartisan investigations shortly after The Washington Post published Revelations about the attack.
Senior members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees viewed full footage of the follow-up attack. The reaction afterward was split along party lines.
Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, supports releasing the video, which he told reporters reveals “nothing of note.”
The top Democrat on the House Defense Committee, Adam Smith of Washington state, said Sunday that the video contradicts what Republicans have said about the footage.
“When they (the survivors) were finally pulled out, they did not attempt to turn the boat around. The boat was clearly disabled. A tiny portion of it was left capsizing at the bow of the boat. They had no communication device. Certainly they were unarmed,” Smith said said on ABC News’ “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” “Any claim that the drugs somehow survived this attack is difficult to reconcile with what we saw.”
Trump walks back comments
Trump told Politico said in a one-on-one interview published Tuesday that “it looked like they were trying to turn the boat around, but I’m not getting involved in that.”
Trump on Monday retracted earlier statements that he had “no problem” with releasing the unedited video.
The Washington Post reported on November 28 that Hegseth gave a verbal order to “kill everyone,” which in turn led the commanding admiral to order the follow-up strike.
Hegseth initially dismissed the report as “made up”.
On December 1, the White House confirmed that Hegseth had tasked Admiral Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley with carrying out the attacks.
A Dec. 1 New York Times article quoting five U.S. officials who spoke separately on condition of anonymity: reported that Hegseth gave an initial written order for an operation to kill the suspected drug smugglers on the boat and destroy the entire ship.
According to the report, Hegseth did not address additional steps should the first missile fail to reach both targets, and he did not issue additional orders to Bradley in response to the boat’s video surveillance.
Hegseth said this was the case during a livestreamed Cabinet meeting on December 2nd not in the room when the follow-up attack was launched.
