The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee says surveillance video of the Sept. 2 U.S. strike on an alleged drug-smuggling vessel in the Caribbean contradicts Republican accounts of the incident.
Rep. Adam Smith, after viewing the footage, said the survivors were not attempting to flip the boat back over and that the vessel appeared incapacitated, with only a small capsized bow remaining. He said the men had no communications device, were unarmed, and that any claim the drugs survived the attack is difficult to reconcile with what he saw. Smith called the video deeply disturbing and said it did not appear the two survivors were in a position to continue fighting. He urged the administration to release the footage, arguing publication would undermine Republican descriptions of the event.
That assessment conflicts with statements from others who viewed the video. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said he had no doubt about the strike’s legality and described seeing two survivors trying to flip a boat loaded with drugs so they could remain in the fight. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, speaking at the Reagan National Defense Forum, said he had been told a reattack was necessary because a few people might still be combat-capable, that they had access to radios, and that there was a possible link-up point with another vessel where drugs remained and people were actively interacting.
On ABC’s This Week, Smith disputed Hegseth’s account, saying there were no radios. President Trump has said the administration would have no problem releasing the video, while Hegseth cautioned any release must be handled responsibly and is under review.
Smith argued the footage shown to lawmakers is similar to other strike videos the administration has publicly released and suggested the reluctance to publish it stems from difficulty justifying the strike. “It seems pretty clear they don’t want to release this video because they don’t want people to see it, because it’s very, very difficult to justify,” he said.
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., who said he has not seen the tape, defended the administration on This Week, arguing cartels have moved operations to the high seas and the president is exercising Article II powers. Schmitt cited the administration’s terrorist designations and said he had reviewed a lengthy Office of Legal Counsel memo and that judge advocates were involved in strike briefings. The OLC opinion has not been made public, and Democrats have called for its release.
The legality of targeting vessels suspected of carrying drugs has become a central point of debate. Smith warned that treating anyone intending to illegally transport drugs to the U.S. as a lawful target for deadly force would grant the president unprecedented authority and should alarm Americans.
The program also touched on President Trump’s pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, convicted in the U.S. in 2024 on drug and weapons trafficking charges. Schmitt declined to weigh in, saying he was not familiar with the facts and dismissing criticism that the administration is soft on drug smuggling, pointing to border and military actions. Smith suggested the pardon fits into a broader White House effort to assert influence in the Western Hemisphere and may be linked to electoral dynamics in Honduras rather than a straightforward anti-drug strategy. He reiterated that drug trafficking remains a major problem in the United States even as he criticized the administration’s methods and legal rationale for the strike.