The highest Democrat on the Home Armed Providers Committee mentioned Sunday that surveillance video of U.S. army strikes focusing on an alleged drug trafficking vessel within the Caribbean Sea on Sept. 2 would contradict how Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth and different Republicans have described it.
“Once they [the survivors] have been lastly taken out, they weren’t making an attempt to flip the boat over. The boat was clearly incapacitated. A tiny portion of it remained, capsized, the bow of the boat. They’d no communications gadget. Actually, they have been unarmed,” Rep. Adam Smith, one of many Democratic lawmakers who noticed the video, mentioned. “Any declare that the medicine had one way or the other survived that assault is tough, laborious to essentially sq. with what we noticed.”
Smith known as the video “deeply disturbing” and mentioned “it didn’t seem that these two survivors have been in any place to proceed the combat.”
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., seems on ABC’s “This Week,” December 7, 2025.
ABC Information
That’s counter to how Hegseth and Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee who additionally seen the video, have described the circumstances previous the second strike.
Cotton informed reporters he had little question concerning the legality of the strike and mentioned he “noticed two survivors making an attempt to flip a ship loaded with medicine sure for america again over so they may keep within the combat.”
On Saturday, Hegseth recounted what he had been informed concerning the subsequent strike.
“I used to be informed, ‘hey, there needed to be a reattack, as a result of there have been a pair people who might nonetheless be within the combat. Entry to radios. There was a hyperlink up level of one other potential boat, medicine have been nonetheless there. They have been actively interacting with them,’” the secretary mentioned on the Reagan Nationwide Protection Discussion board.
Requested by “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos about Hegseth’s feedback, Smith mentioned, “That is ridiculous. There aren’t any radios.”
“They should launch the video,” Smith mentioned. “In the event that they launch the video, then every part that the Republicans are saying will clearly be portrayed to be fully false. And other people will get a have a look at it, and they’re going to see. The boat was adrift. It was going the place the present was going to take it, and these two have been making an attempt to determine learn how to survive.”
President Donald Trump has mentioned the administration would have “no downside” releasing the video of the strike in query, however Hegseth was noncommittal when requested Saturday.
“No matter we have been to determine to launch, we would must be very accountable about it so we’re reviewing that proper now.,” Hegseth mentioned on the Reagan Nationwide Protection Discussion board. “I am far more focused on defending that than the rest. So, we’re viewing the method, and we’ll see.”
Smith argued the strike video lawmakers have been proven is “no completely different” than the strike movies the administration has already publicly launched.
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., seems on ABC’s “This Week,” December 7, 2025.
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“It appears fairly clear they do not wish to launch this video as a result of they do not need folks to see it, as a result of it is very, very tough to justify,” he mentioned.
Sen. Eric Schmitt, a Republican member of the Armed Providers Committee who has not seen the video, defended the administration in a separate interview on “This Week.”
“The actual fact is, these cartels now, as a result of the southern border is closed, they’ve gone to the excessive seas. So President Trump is performing together with his core Article II powers. No severe authorized knowledgeable would doubt that the president has authority to blow narco-terrorists out of the water,” Schmitt mentioned.
The Missouri senator continued, “President Trump has been delegated the authority by Congress to designate terrorist organizations. He is carried out that. He despatched a letter to Congress saying he was going to provoke these strikes. We have had common briefings about it.”
Schmitt argued the criticism from Democrats quantities to “politics and making an attempt to take out Secretary Hegseth.”
On Saturday, Hegseth mentioned designating cartels as terrorist organizations makes them a “goal” identical to al-Qaida. However the legality of your complete operation focusing on these vessels has been a central debate, and authorized consultants have questioned the administration’s justification.
“When you say anybody who has medicine that they are meaning to illegally transit to the U.S. is a respectable goal for lethal pressure, the quantity of energy that offers the president and the U.S. army is unprecedented, and one thing that should be regarding to all the American folks,” Smith, the highest Armed Providers Democrat, mentioned on “This Week.”
Schmitt, nevertheless, insisted the strikes are authorized.
“They’re fully licensed. I reviewed the 40-plus web page memo by the Workplace of Authorized Counsel. There’s [Judge Advocates General] officers in these rooms, George, each time there is a strike,” Schmitt mentioned.
The opinion by the Justice Division’s Workplace of Authorized Counsel has not been made public. Democrats have known as for it to be launched.
Trump’s pardon of Honduran ex-president
Schmitt was additionally requested about Trump’s determination to pardon Juan Orlando Hernandez, the previous president of Honduras, who was serving a 45-year sentence in america on a number of counts of drug and weapons trafficking in 2024.
“Do you assist this pardon of the previous Honduran president?” Stephanopoulos requested Schmitt.
“I am not aware of the info or circumstances, however I feel what’s telling right here is to attempt to indicate that one way or the other President Trump is comfortable on, on drug smuggling is simply ridiculous,” Schmitt mentioned. “It’s very ridiculous. He is the – he is supplied border safety like we have by no means seen earlier than.”
Honduras’ President Juan Orlando Hernandez speaks throughout the opening ceremony of the UN Local weather Change Convention COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, Monday Nov. 1, 2021.
Andy Buchanan/Pool by way of AP, Recordsdata
However pressed by Stephanopoulos on whether or not he supported the pardon, Schmitt mentioned that the dialogue about Hernandez was a distraction from the administration’s army marketing campaign towards alleged drug trafficking within the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean.
“What we’re speaking about listed below are the narco-terrorists poisoning Individuals,” Schmitt mentioned. “This try and attempt to give attention to a pardon is traditional since you’ve misplaced the talk now on the narco-terrorist query.”
However Smith mentioned that he believed the pardon was a part of the administration’s bid to exert further management on South American politics.
“It is extra about what Trump launched with their nationwide safety technique a pair days in the past, three days in the past now, the place he desires to claim dominance over the Western hemisphere,” Smith mentioned.
“The Honduras factor appears to must do with the presidential election that is occurring down there and the social gathering that helps Trump or the social gathering that does not assist Trump,” he added. “So, it appears to be far more about that than any respectable want to cease what, by the best way, is a large downside; medicine within the U.S. are an enormous downside.”
