A political firestorm has erupted in Washington after a classified briefing on the controversial Venezuela drug-boat strike turned explosive. Senators are now clashing publicly over allegations that President Trump and Pete Hegseth approved a “KILL ALL” order during the naval operation. While the Pentagon insists the strike was “lawful,” new reports claim at least two survivors may have been deliberately targeted.
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NewsTranscript
00:00The video was very troubling, and I think more people need to see it.
00:05But I want to better understand process, justification, and
00:14some of the items.
00:17I had a checklist of items that I want to see that I think some of my,
00:20many of my colleagues have asked for us.
00:23Well, I appreciate Admiral Bradley and General Cain coming up for this briefing tonight.
00:33It was, I was the only member in the room, so it was very thorough,
00:39and I got to ask lots of questions.
00:42Let me start by saying, you know, echo what others have said.
00:47The video was very disturbing.
00:50And I think Congress needs to see it.
00:55I think as well that the legal opinion underlying this whole policy actions,
01:05frankly, needs to be released publicly.
01:09I have additional questions and additional documentation of what,
01:16how this process arose that I want to see.
01:21And obviously I think the Admiral and the General will be asked to testify at least before relevant committees like SASC and the Intelligence Committee.
01:36And why don't I stop there and take a couple of questions?
01:39Senator Werner, Senator Werner.
01:40Senator Cotton said that this was a lawful attack that was carried out.
01:45In your view, and from seeing the videos here, was this a lawful attack?
01:49I am, I think the video was very disturbing.
01:54I am not going to weigh in on all of the questions about lawful morality, judgments, until I get all the information.
02:07I mean, some of the accusations that have been made, you know, whether this kind of action constituted a war crime,
02:17I can't think of a more serious accusation that could be made.
02:24And anyone, and I'm not just saying, well, for this senator, I'm not going to make a judgment on that until I have all the information.
02:36But otherwise would be what I think would be not doing my duty.
02:42And I do continue to have concerns that this pattern from Secretary Headstaff of putting our uniformed military in harm's way or under duress,
02:57I mean, as we saw from the Inspector General report or how there seems to be a number of variations of this story of how the facts are rolled out,
03:08how the reluctance to share with Congress for a strike that took place on September 2nd until December, the unedited video.
03:19I can at least comment on those actions. I think it doesn't do the Secretary or our armed forces any service by holding back and not being transparent.
03:34We all know that our country's record of interventions in the Caribbean and Central America and South America over the last hundred-plus years hasn't been a perfect record.
03:50And so as we think about these actions against these drug traffickers, and they are threats, but the characterizations that have been made, we have to do that in a thoughtful way.
04:00And then as we still think about this enormous flotilla we've got off the coast of Venezuela when we still have not got any articulation of what the plan or policy is,
04:13again, doesn't do those men and women who are potentially in harm's way, doesn't treat them with, I think, the appropriate transparency and directness they deserve.
04:27Did Admiral Bradley, did Admiral Bradley...
04:29Those two men that were in the water, based on what you saw, do you feel like they became an offensive threat to military...
04:37Again, I am not going to...
04:40I'm going to say the video was very troubling, and I think more people need to see it.
04:50But I want to better understand process, justification, and some of the items.
05:02I had a checklist of items that I want to see that I think many of my colleagues have asked for as well.
05:08Did Admiral Bradley specifically order the follow-on strikes at the order of Secretary Hegseth?
05:13Was it Secretary Hegseth's orders why he actually ordered those follow-on strikes?
05:19I think that is a question that I want to still get some further clarification on.
05:28What were the original orders?
05:30And again, I'm not going to... I think I'm as clear as I'm going to be.
05:33I'm going to, you know, in terms of judgments, I'm going to reserve making judgments, particularly when we're talking about something that is so extraordinarily serious,
05:43not only in terms of Secretary Hegseth and Admiral Bradley, but candidly in terms of the United States Armed Forces.
05:51You know, I'm not going to jump to some conclusion.
05:55I wish this could have... this eventual transparency could and should have happened much earlier.
06:04But we are where we are today.
06:06And...
06:07Can you talk about one part?
06:09Will Secretary have some responsible ultimately here?
06:12Again, these are the kind of questions that still need to be answered.
06:16And again, we've got lots of attribution in the press about who said what, when and where.
06:25And I want to get the answers to that.
06:2780 people killed now.
06:29I think it deserved a fuller and more clear briefing and legal justification well before this meeting.
06:35Was Secretary Hegseth responsible for this strike?
06:39Secretary Hegseth is responsible for all of these strikes because he's responsible for the campaign
06:44and for the rules of engagement and for how it's being carried out.
06:47Senator Cotton said he expects these strikes to continue.
06:50Do you think there will be more briefings with these?
06:52There should be.
06:53There has to be more and better briefing about why this is the right thing for us to be doing.
06:59Because if the President of the United States pardons the former President of Honduras,
07:05who was convicted by an American court of trafficking hundreds of tons of cocaine,
07:11not in general, but specifically to the United States.
07:14If President Trump can pardon a convicted narco-terrorist trafficker,
07:20how does this campaign where we are targeting and killing folks on the open ocean
07:27to prevent their trafficking of drugs anywhere, how is that legitimate?
07:32That's a policy question.
07:34That is not a question rooted in the operation of our armed forces.
07:37That's about the larger judgment, which the Secretary and President are responsible for.
07:42I'm sorry if you've already answered this, but can you say anything about whether the original orders
07:47that were given by Secretary of Defense behind that?
07:50It sounds as if he did not order to kill everyone on board.
07:54I'm waiting for some follow-up from this briefing, but that's certainly what was presented.
07:59And then we also heard from Senator Cotton that the boat was flipped over
08:02and the survivors were trying to flip it back right side.
08:04Is that your understanding?
08:06That's a fair characterization.
08:08Was the strike after the survivors had climbed back in the boat?
08:13Or did they ever climb back in the boat?
08:16It feels unclassified to me.
08:23I'm trying to avoid making something unclassified that's currently classified to the best of my understanding.
08:29Senator Cotton and I came out with different understandings of what we saw.
08:32And then was there a Jack in the room telling them?
08:35Yes.
08:36Do you understand why Secretary Huxley said that he was not there watching the second strike happen when it was carried out?
08:43I don't understand why other than he's busy.
08:45Did Admiral Bradley talk about that at all?
08:47About why he was no longer president?
08:49No.
08:50That was not a joke.
08:51I want to thank Admiral Bradley and General Kane for coming to brief about the strikes on September 2nd, which were righteous strikes.
09:00These are narco-terrorists who are trafficking drugs that are destined for the United States to kill thousands of Arkansans and millions of Americans.
09:12The first strike, the second strike, and the third and the fourth strike on September 2nd were entirely lawful and needful, and they were exactly what we would expect our military commanders to do.
09:26Were there survivors in the boat?
09:27What exactly did you see in terms of the video of the second strike?
09:31Were there survivors?
09:32I saw two survivors trying to flip a boat, load it with drugs, bound for the United States, back over so they could stay in the fight.
09:41And potentially, given all the context we heard, of other narco-terrorist boats in the area coming to their aid to recover their cargo and recover those narco-terrorists.
09:51And just like you would blow up a boat off of the Somali coast or the Yemeni coast, and you'd come back and strike it again if it still had terrorists and it still had explosives or missiles, Admiral Bradley and Secretary of the Senate did exactly what we would expect him to do.
10:07Did his dad tell him?
10:08Height said it's one of the most disturbing things he's seen in his career.
10:11Did that match up?
10:12Who did?
10:13Congressman Height.
10:14No, I didn't see anything disturbing about it.
10:16What's disturbing to me is that millions of Americans have died from drugs being run to America by the United States.
10:20What's gratifying to me is that the president has made the decision, finally, after decades of letting it happen, that we're going to take the battle to them.
10:31And we're going to continue to strike these boats until cartels learn their lesson that their drugs are no longer coming to America.
10:38Did a military JAG say that the second and follow-on strikes were all lawful?
10:42Yes.
10:43Look, this is not like a firefight in some cave in Afghanistan that had three people.
10:50This was witnessed by literally hundreds of uniformed and civilian personnel at the Pentagon, at Fort Bragg, at other installations.
10:59Dozens of them were lawyers.
11:01Everybody was watching.
11:02Everybody had seen the intelligence and the legal basis leading up to these strikes.
11:06Everyone was present during it.
11:07And that continues to be the case.
11:09There's been no change in the guidance or the order that the secretary has given to our troopers.
11:15And in subsequent strikes, there is an example where survivors actually were shipwrecked and distressed and not trying to continue on their mission.
11:24And they were treated, as they should be, as noncombatants.
11:27They were picked up by U.S. forces.
11:29Just an example of how, of course, our military always obeys the laws of war.
11:35Our military also acts within appropriate lawful authority to target these narco-terrorists.
11:42But Congressman Hyman also said that, according to what he saw in that video, the two who survived trying to get back on the boat, there was no way they could have conducted further operations or anything like that.
11:54Do you disagree with them?
11:55Jim may disagree with the entire operation.
11:58He may be okay with drug boats running to America, or at least thinking that it's an effective tactic to interdict them.
12:04I just disagree with that.
12:06These are narco-terrorist, foreign-designated terrorist organizations who are bringing drugs to our shores that have killed millions of Americans and thousands of Arkansans.
12:16If you think these strikes are justified and righteous, as I do, and I want them to continue, then, of course, the second strike, when you have two survivors who are trying to flip their boat back over and continue on their mission, remain in the battle.
12:33Unlike a subsequent strike, in which there was no such indication, and they were what's called distressed or shipwrecked under the laws of the sea and the law of armed conflict, and our military went out and picked them up.
12:51Is your expectation that these strikes will continue?
12:54It's my expectation and my deep hope that these strikes will continue.
12:58If it's not on land, the President has said that strikes could happen on land. Is that something you would support?
13:04If necessary to stop the flow of drugs into the United States and protect our communities and our children, we should take force to these curtails wherever they are authorized.
13:14Should briefings become more common as strikes continue?
13:18Say again?
13:19Should briefings become far more common as strikes continue?
13:21Look, it's not Congress's role to sharpshoot every single tactical decision.
13:27This was the first strike, so understandably the Secretary and Admiral Bradley wanted to be involved in it.
13:32But subsequent strikes, again, we don't expect admirals and the Secretary of Defense to be approving patrols in Iraq or Afghanistan during the war on terror in those places.
13:42They shouldn't be involved in every single decision here, nor should Congress be sitting there sharpshooting and Monday morning quarterback.
13:48But yesterday the President told reporters that this is war regarding the actions with Venezuela, so that seems like an escalation that Congress would want to be a part of.
13:57Well, look, they came up here today to brief us because of the lies that were in the Washington Post last Friday to clear the air.
14:06I advise the next time to immediately put out what they told us today, because if they had put it out on Friday or Saturday, you wouldn't have the six days of controversy.
14:14I think you would have had the American people very satisfied that we have such a high degree of professionalism in our military,
14:19and the President is taking the battle to these narco-terrorists.
14:23So you believe the whole video should be released in its entirety?
14:26I mean, I'll leave that to the Department of Defense and whether or not there's anything in there they don't want to release.
14:31I didn't see anything in there that concerned me.
14:33Look, these videos have been made and released for 25 years.
14:36Like, you've all seen videos that have been released of drone strikes or helicopter strikes on terrorist groups in Afghanistan or Syria or Iraq or Yemen.
14:47There's nothing novel or new here.
14:50Just because it happened on water doesn't make any difference than happening on land.
14:54There was no change in protocol or policy from September 2 through the rest of the strikes?
14:59No.
15:00General Cain made it clear multiple times under questions from me that the orders have not changed from the first strike to today.
15:09So the actions that our military took on September 2 and the actions they took on a subsequent strike in which there were distressed shipwreck that were deemed noncombatant is happening under the same legal standards and operation order.
15:25Was there a kill-all order from Secretary Hanks?
15:27No.
15:28No.
15:29Both.
15:30Admiral Bradley was very clear that he was given no such order to give no quarter or to kill them all.
15:35He was given an order that, of course, was written down in great detail, as our military always does.
15:39But was there a vocal order as well?
15:41There was no vocal order either.
15:43Senator Wicker today, do you think it's appropriate for Senator Wicker to be watching and continue to do this investigation into the second strike?
15:51Well, I mean, I think what we saw today and what Senator Wicker and Senator Reid on the Armed Services Committee saw today is a very thorough inquiry into exactly what happened.
15:59I can't say what's going to happen on the committee in the future, but I think what happened today with General Cain and Admiral Bradley coming up and showing us the videos,
16:09kind of talking through everything that led up to September 2nd is a very thorough review of what's happened.
16:15So no more information is needed?
16:16I don't personally need any more information, no.
16:18Senator, how far apart were those strikes on September 2nd?
16:23I mean, they're several minutes apart.
16:26You had obscurance, both the smoke from the first strike and then cloud cover as well.
16:31I couldn't tell you exactly how long.
16:33But minutes?
16:34I think minutes.
16:35Minutes, not hours?
16:36I don't think so.
16:37Senator, you said that the strikes were righteous, that there were four of them.
16:40Would you have taken the same shot if you were in that position?
16:42If I was Admiral Bradley and I'd been delegated authority, absolutely.
16:47And I'd do it again.
16:48Was there more than four shots?
16:49Based on the briefings?
16:50No, there's four.
16:51Based on the briefings you received, do you agree with the president that we are at war?
16:55These drug cartels have been waging war against the American people for decades, and we are finally simply joining it.
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