First President Trump says he has NO problem with Congress and the public seeing the actual FULL video of the attack on the drug boat in Sept. that had 2 survivors from the first strike and then the order was given thru the military chain of command to attack the boat again even with survivors in the water….
By punting the call to release the video to Hegseth?
He IS putting the response to the video , if it is released on Hegseth and the Admiral who gave the “go’ order for the second attack….
Congress, both parties, have indicated that if they do NOT get access to the tape?
They will begin to stop funding the Defense Sec. Tavel money and could go further in squeezing him….
With any other President?
The second strike would NOT have been approved…
And if so?
Hegseth and the Commander who actually gave the go ahed would be removed from service….
Trump IS letting this dangle in the wind hopping that his everyday actions elsewhere will allow this to go away….
Like the Epstein story, eh?
President Donald Trump on Monday justified the U.S. military’s decision to fire a second missile in a heavily scrutinized attack on a boat in the Caribbean Sea by claiming that two suspected drug smugglers were trying to right the vessel after it had capsized in the initial strike.
Trump also backtracked on whether he was open to releasing the video footage of the second strike. Last week, Trump told reporters he saw “no problem” in releasing the footage, but on Monday he said he would leave the decision to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The Republican administration is facing calls from Democratic lawmakers to release footage of the Sept. 2 operation in the Caribbean Sea, which killed nine people aboard the boat in an initial strike and then two more who managed to survive.
“They were trying to return the boat back to where it could float, and we didn’t want to see that because that boat was loaded up with drugs,” Trump said on Monday….
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“Whatever Pete Hegseth wants to do is OK with me,” Trump said.
Trump, however, last Wednesday in an exchange with reporters about the strike footage said: “Whatever they have we’d certainly release.”…
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Hegseth said in a Fox News interview Saturday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California that officials were reviewing the video, but he did not commit to releasing it. “Whatever we were to decide to release, we’d have to be very responsible” about it,” Hegseth said.
The Pentagon on Monday did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the status of Hegseth’s review or confirm Trump’s assertion that the suspects appeared to be trying to turn over the vessel before the second strike was fired.
On Capitol Hill, lawmakers are demanding that the Pentagon hand over “unedited video of strikes” against drug cartels to Congress, threatening to withhold a quarter of Hegseth’s travel budget if it doesn’t. The provision is included in the $900 billion defense bill the House is expected to vote on later this week.
Over the weekend, Sen. Tom Cotton, the Republican who leads the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he would not oppose public release of the footage….
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Bradley told lawmakers there was no “kill them all” order from Hegseth, but a video of the entire series of attacks left some lawmakers with serious questions. Legal experts have said killing survivors of a strike at sea could be a violation of the laws of military warfare….
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