Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing the most severe political crisis of his tenure after lawmakers were shown video footage behind closed doors of a controversial September U.S. military strike in the Caribbean that reportedly killed survivors clinging to a destroyed vessel.
While the classified briefings, led by Special Operations Commander Admiral Frank M. Bradley, appeared intended to bolster the administration’s defense of the operation, the visuals—particularly the follow-up strike, or “double-tap”—have had the opposite effect, provoking bipartisan outrage and fueling calls for the immediate public release of the footage.
The Video’s Chilling Revelation
The footage shown to members of the House and Senate Armed Services and Intelligence Committees captured the second of four strikes against a suspected drug boat departing from Venezuela on September 2. The strike resulted in the deaths of all 11 people aboard.
- Democratic Outrage: Democrats who viewed the video were unequivocal in their condemnation. Representative Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, called it “one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service.” Himes stated that the video clearly showed “two individuals in clear distress, without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel, who were killed by the United States.”
- Legal Violation: Lawmakers pointed out that the Department of Defense’s own Law of War Manual cites attacking a shipwrecked vessel as a specific example of an “impermissible action.”
- The Defense: The admiral who oversaw the operation, Frank Bradley, defended his decision, arguing that the survivors remained legitimate military targets because they were either attempting to flip the boat to preserve a cargo of narcotics or could have contacted fellow traffickers for rescue. Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a defense of Hegseth, backed this view, saying the video showed “two survivors trying to flip a boat loaded with drugs… back over so they could stay in the fight.”
Hegseth’s Shifting Narrative
The video evidence directly challenges Defense Secretary Hegseth’s rapidly shifting account of the incident, which was first reported by The Washington Post detailing that he had verbally ordered a “kill everybody” directive prior to the first strike.
- Initial Denial: Hegseth initially denied giving such an order and dismissed the reporting as “fake news.”
- The ‘Fog of War’: He later conceded that a second strike occurred but claimed he left the room after the first one, attributing the subsequent lethality to the “fog of war.” Critics, however, pointed out Hegseth’s earlier televised boast that he knew “exactly” who was on the boat and “exactly” what they were doing, suggesting a lack of transparency.
The briefings appear to have created a rift even among Republican allies. While key committee chairs are defending the Secretary, others have called for an immediate and thorough investigation. Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, demanded the administration release the full video to the public, arguing that if the administration’s actions were appropriate, releasing the video would prove it.
The pressure on Hegseth is compounded by a separate Pentagon Inspector General report released on the same day, which found he violated agency policy by using the private, encrypted Signal messaging app to discuss highly sensitive details of U.S. airstrikes in Yemen, potentially compromising military missions.
The combination of the IG report and the graphic video testimony has transformed the boat strike from a controversy over an isolated military action into a crisis of confidence in the Defense Secretary’s judgment and truthfulness.