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President Donald Trump is on board with releasing the video footage of the second strike targeting an alleged drug boat on Sept. 2.
The Trump administration is currently facing heightened scrutiny for its strikes against alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean, amid confirmation from the White House that the U.S. military conducted a second strike against one of the vessels after the first strike left survivors.
Trump shared footage of the first strike, and said Wednesday he supported releasing documentation of the second strike as well.
“I don’t know what they have, but whatever they have we’d certainly release. No problem,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday.
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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth told reporters Tuesday that he watched the first strike live, but left for a meeting and did not learn of the second strike until later.
The White House said Monday that Hegseth had authorized Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley to conduct the strikes, and that Bradley was the one who ordered and directed the second one.
At the time of the Sept. 2 strike, Bradley was serving as the commander of Joint Special Operations Command, which falls under U.S. Special Operations Command. He is now the head of U.S. Special Operations Command.
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According to Hegseth, conducting the subsequent strike against the alleged drug boat was the right call.
“Admiral Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat,” Hegseth said Tuesday.
Hegseth and the White House have faced additional questions about the legality of the strikes targeting alleged drug smugglers, after the Washington Post reported on Friday that Hegseth verbally ordered everyone onboard the alleged drug boat to be killed in a Sept. 2 operation.
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The Post reported that a second strike was conducted to take out the remaining survivors on the boat.
Meanwhile, the White House has disputed that Hegseth ever gave an initial order to ensure that everyone on board was killed, when asked specifically about Hegseth’s instructions.
On Capitol Hill though, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are pushing for greater oversight and accountability on the strikes, amid concerns the second strike targeting survivors was illegal.
Despite previous efforts in recent months to introduce a war powers resolution to curb Trump’s ability to conduct these strikes that failed to garner enough Republican support for passage, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Tim Kaine, D-Va., Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., introduced another war powers resolution on Wednesday to bar Trump from using U.S. armed forces to engage in hostilities within or against Venezuela.
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“Although President Trump campaigned on no more wars, he and his Administration are unilaterally moving us closer to one with Venezuela — and they are doing so without providing critical information to the American people about the campaign’s overall strategy, its legal rationale, and the potential fallout from a prolonged conflict, which includes increased migration to our border,” Kaine said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Trump administration has conducted more than 20 strikes against alleged drug boats in Latin American waters, and has enhanced its military presence in the Caribbean to align with Trump’s goal to crack down on drugs entering the U.S.
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