U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the administration fully backs military commanders after recent strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug-smuggling vessels. Speaking alongside President Donald Trump, Hegseth confirmed the U.S. has temporarily paused operations because drug boats are harder to locate — but insisted strikes will continue. Trump warned that any country trafficking illegal drugs into the U.S. is “subject to attack.”
00:00Six months, illegal border crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border have plummeted to the lowest level ever recorded.
00:07And then it's getting after and going after narco-terrorists and designated terrorist organizations in our own hemisphere.
00:14As I've said, and I'll say again, we've only just begun striking narco-boats and putting narco-terrorists at the bottom of the ocean
00:23because they've been poisoning the American people.
00:26And Joe Biden tried to approach it with kid gloves.
00:30It allowed them to come across the border, cartels take over community, 20 million people, hundreds of thousands of Americans poisoned.
00:37And President Trump said, no, we're taking the gloves off.
00:40We're taking the fight to these designated terror organizations.
00:42And that's exactly what we're doing.
00:44So we're stopping the drugs, we're striking the boats, we're defeating narco-terrorists, and we're standing...
00:49You may say one thing, that drugs coming in through the sea by sea are down 91%.
00:56And I don't know who the 9% is.
00:59I'm not sure either, sir, because...
01:00But down 91% by sea.
01:03We've had a bit of a pause because it's hard to find boats to strike right now.
01:08Which is the entire point, right?
01:10Deterrence has to matter, not arrest and hand over and then do it again.
01:14The rinse and repeat approach of previous administrations, this is meant to get after that approach.
01:19And I will just end by saying, as President Trump always has our back, we always have the back of our commanders who are making decisions in difficult situations.
01:28And we do in this case and all these strikes.
01:31They're making judgment calls and ensuring that they defend the American people.
01:35They've done the right things.
01:36We'll keep doing that.
01:38And we have their backs, Mr. President.
01:39Good job.
01:40Thank you very much.
01:41Howard?
01:41States that have issued commercial driver's license to foreigners, and they've gone through sham schools.
01:48I wanted to clarify something that you had said on Sunday regarding the boat strikes near Venezuela.
01:53You had said that you didn't know if the second strike on that one boat had happened, but you wouldn't have wanted it.
02:00Now that your administration has acknowledged that it happened, do you support that second strike?
02:04And, Mr. Secretary, I wanted to clarify something you had said in an interview back in September, I believe, on Fox News.
02:10You said that you had watched that strike live on television.
02:13In real time, did you know that there were survivors after the initial strike?
02:18Well, look, all I know is this.
02:21Every boat that you see get blown up.
02:23We save 25,000 on average lives.
02:2525,000 lives.
02:26They've been sending enough of this horrible fentanyl and other things, like cocaine and other things, but fentanyl right now is the leader of the pack, to kill our entire nation.
02:41Because a little speck on the head of a pin can kill somebody.
02:45It's very dangerous stuff.
02:46I know so many people with this.
02:47Some were drug addicts.
02:49They had one little sample, and they died.
02:52They died.
02:53They couldn't believe it.
02:54But as far as the attack is concerned, I didn't, you know, I still haven't gotten a lot of information because I rely on Pete.
03:02But to me, it was an attack.
03:04It wasn't one strike, two strikes, three strikes.
03:06Somebody asked me a question about the second strike.
03:08I didn't know about the second strike.
03:10I didn't know anything about people.
03:12I wasn't involved in it.
03:13I knew they took out a boat.
03:14But I would say this.
03:16They had a strike.
03:18I hear the gentleman that was in charge of that is extraordinary, an extraordinary person.
03:24I'll let Pete speak about him.
03:26But Pete was satisfied.
03:28Pete didn't know about second attack having to do with two people.
03:32And I guess Pete would have to speak to it.
03:36I can say this.
03:37I want those boats taken out.
03:39And if we have to, we'll attack on land also, just like we attack on sea.
03:43And there's very little coming in by sea.
03:45I think we've knocked out over 90 percent of it.
03:47There's very little.
03:48And I understand that.
03:49The problem directly by taking a lethal kinetic approach.
03:54As you would, as any leader would want, you want to own that responsibility.
03:57So I said, I'm going to be the one to make the call after getting all the information
04:01and make sure it's the right strike.
04:03That was September 2nd.
04:04There's a lot of intelligence that goes into that, building that case and understanding
04:08that a lot of people are providing information.
04:10I watched that first strike life.
04:12As you can imagine, at the Department of War, we've got a lot of things to do.
04:15So I didn't stick around for the hour and two hours, whatever, where all the sensitive
04:20site exploitation digitally occurs.
04:22So I moved on to my next meeting.
04:23A couple of hours later, I learned that that commander had made the, which he had the
04:28complete authority to do, and by the way, Admiral Bradley made the correct decision to
04:33ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat.
04:35He sunk the boat, sunk the boat, and eliminated the threat.
04:40And it was the right call.
04:42We have his back.
04:44And the American people are safer because narco-terrorists know you can't bring drugs through
04:50the water and eventually on land, if necessary, to the American people.
04:54We will eliminate that threat, and we're proud to do it.
04:57So you didn't see any survivors, to be clear, after that first strike?
05:01I did not personally see survivors, but I stand, because the thing was on fire.
05:06It was exploded, and fire is smoke.
05:08You can't see anything.
05:09You got digital.
05:09This is called the fog of war.
05:11This is what you and the press don't understand.
05:14You sit in your air-conditioned offices or up on Capitol Hill, and you nitpick, and you
05:18plant fake stories in the Washington Post about kill everybody, phrases on anonymous sources
05:24not based in anything, not based in any truth at all.
05:28And then you want to throw out really irresponsible terms about American heroes, about the judgment
05:33that they made.
05:34I wrote a whole book on this topic because of what politicians and the press does to warfighters.
05:39President Trump has empowered commanders, commanders to do what is necessary, which
05:44is dark and difficult things in the dead of night on behalf of the American people.
05:48We support them, and we will stop the poisoning of the American people.
05:51And, Mr. Secretary, on the second strike, you said it happened more than an hour after
05:55the first, did I hear it correctly?
05:56I did not have the exact amount of time.
05:58And it's, you end up in the room, is what you're saying.
06:00I already stated my answer quite clearly.
06:03There's no structure.
06:04And when I see somebody like Ilhan Omar, but he also allowed drugs to come in at record
06:10numbers, and hundreds of thousands of people a year died, and we're taking those son of
06:16a bitches out, yeah.
06:17Thank you so much for that.
06:18You know, our country's at a tipping point.
06:21We could go bad.
06:22We're at a tipping point.
06:24I don't know if people mind me saying that, but I'm saying it.
06:26You mentioned potential science breaks.
06:28Can you elaborate on anything on that?
06:29Yeah, I'll elaborate if they come in through a certain country, or any country, or if we
06:34think they're building mills for, whether it's fentanyl or cocaine.
06:40I hear Colombia, the country of Colombia, is making cocaine.
06:44They have cocaine manufacturing plants, okay?
06:47And then they sell us their cocaine.
06:49We appreciate that very much.
06:50But, yeah, anybody that's doing that and selling it into our country is subject to attack.
06:56So not necessarily just Venezuela?
06:57No, not just Venezuela, no.
07:00Venezuela has been very bad.
07:02Venezuela has been really bad in something else, probably worse than most, but a lot of
07:07other people do it, too.
07:08Where they came from, they got nothing.
07:12You know, they came from paradise, and they said...
07:27Is that no.
07:29You know, because they're looking through the weather, but they're over with no property
07:32You know, where you need because of that view, obviously, it's very plausible.
07:34Get some news, but they're going, you know, people have to pay your debt,How farny,
07:37by saying, I want to see if ...
07:46I'm, you know, I want to ask you, may come.
07:49So, I just kind of continue, and I know that people are looking for one of their stocks and
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