Rubio, Hegseth refuse release of 'double-tap' strike footage after Congress briefing

Claire Heddles, Miami Herald on Dec 16, 2025

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insisted they won’t release the full video of the Sept. 2 strikes on an alleged drug boat and controversial second strike on survivors after briefing members of Congress on Tuesday morning on military action in the Caribbean.

“In keeping with longstanding Department of War policy, Department of Defense policy, of course, we’re not going to release a top secret full, unedited video of that to the general public,” Hegseth told reporters after Tuesday’s briefing with senators. His office has released dozens of other videos of boat strikes on social media. “Appropriate committees will see it, but not the general public,” Hegseth said.

Tuesday’s meetings came amid growing criticism from Democrats and from human rights groups accusing the United States of carrying out dozens of extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, and as President Donald Trump talks about potential land strikes.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer sharply criticized the two Trump administration officials to reporters after Tuesday’s meeting, as he did after a meeting with leadership last week. He said he’s seen the Sept. 2 footage and that it was “deeply troubling.”

Democratic leadership sent a letter to Hegseth last Friday urging expedited “public release” of the video.

“If they can’t be transparent on this, how can you trust their transparency on all the other issues swirling about in the Caribbean?” Schumer told reporters after Tuesday’s meeting.

“We don’t want another endless war,” he added. “We don’t want to stumble into something and given Trump’s erratic back and forth on this issue, I worry about that, so do many Americans.”

Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, a longtime Florida political consultant, justified military action within Venezuelan territorial waters — not just in international waters — in a wide-ranging interview with Vanity Fair released this week.

“One of the great untold stories of the U.S. government is the talents of the CIA,” she told the magazine. “There may be an interest in going inside territorial waters, which we have permission (to do) because they’re skirting the coastline to avoid getting (caught).”

She acknowledged to the magazine that Trump needs congressional approval before land strikes, pointing to the briefings like the one the secretaries held Tuesday. “If he were to authorize some activity on land, then it’s war, then (we’d need) Congress,” she said. “But Marco and JD, to some extent, are up on the Hill every day, briefing.”

Tuesday’s meeting also comes after Trump on Monday declared fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction. The declaration “is going to bring resources to bear, personnel, coordination,” Florida Sen. Ashley Moody told "Fox & Friends" Tuesday ahead of Hegseth and Rubio’s briefing.

To reporters, Hegseth defended the action Tuesday as blocking “weapons, weapons meaning drugs” coming into the U.S. Generally, fentanyl coming to the U.S. does not come through Venezuela, according to experts and government reports.

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