Hegseth says Pentagon will not release full, unedited video of September drug boat strike
War Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon won't release the "top secret, full, unedited" video of the controversial September strike on a suspected drug boat in accordance with "longstanding" policies.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., was not satisfied by the classified briefing lawmakers received on Tuesday regarding the Trump administration's boat strikes.
"Oh, hell no. That was a joke," she told Migrant Insider editor Pablo Manríquez.
MeidasTouch Network senior digital editor Acyn Torabi shared video on X showing the congresswoman respond to questions from Manríquez outside the Capitol after leaving the briefing.
"There was not a single piece of intelligence that was shared that even rises to the level of any other briefing that we've seen on Ukraine, China, anything," Ocasio-Cortez said, adding that it "was not a serious intelligence briefing. This was a communication of opinion."
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., departs following a briefing with House lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
She said if President Donald Trump's "administration wants to go to war… they need to go get it from Congress. And if Republicans want to defend this argument that cocaine is a weapon, they can go vote on that. But… this is just conjecture at this point."
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.
"On the campaign trail, President Trump promised to take on the cartels – and he has taken unprecedented action to stop the scourge of narcoterrorism that has resulted in the needless deaths of innocent Americans. All of these decisive strikes have been against designated narcoterrorists, as affirmed by US intelligence, bringing deadly poison to our shores," White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement.
"The President will continue to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country and to bring those responsible to justice while maintaining transparency with Members of Congress, who have received more than 20 bipartisan briefings on these actions," she added.
TRUMP DECLARES ‘VENEZUELAN REGIME’ A FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION, ORDERS OIL TANKER BLOCKADE
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, accompanied by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaks during a news conference with their Australian counterparts at the State Department on Dec. 8, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
A senior administration official claimed, "Democrats are using every opportunity and every excuse possible to criticize the President for stopping the flow of deadly drugs into this country."
The administration's policy of blowing up vessels of alleged narcoterrorists trafficking drugs has been controversial.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth were involved in providing briefings to Senate and House members on Tuesday.
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Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said during a Tuesday appearance on the Fox News Channel that his takeaways from the briefing included that the strikes "are legal" and "effective," that they are based on "exquisitely good" intelligence, and that "checks and balances" are in place to ensure "innocent people who just happen to be in a boat are not hurt."
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