Trump defers to Hegseth on Venezuela strike video release
“I didn’t say that. You said that, I didn’t say that,” Trump told reporters at the White House when a question referenced his previous remark about having “no problem” with releasing the video of the September 2 strike.
“Whatever Hegseth wants to do is okay with me," he added.
Last Wednesday, Trump had commented on why video of the first strike from the September 2 incident was publicly released while the second remained confidential, amid allegations that two survivors clinging to wreckage may have been killed. The administration showed the footage only to members of Congress in a closed session.
"I don't know what they have, but whatever they have would certainly (be) released. No problem," Trump had said at the time.
Hegseth, speaking at a forum in California on Saturday, did not confirm whether the video would be released, despite Trump’s prior comments. “We are reviewing the process, and we’ll see,” he said.
The September 2 strike marked the first of 22 operations carried out by the Pentagon, resulting in over 85 deaths. Hegseth emphasized that the strikes would continue.
"These narco-terrorists are the al-Qaeda of our hemisphere, and we are hunting them with the same sophistication and precision that we hunted al-Qaeda. We are tracking them, we are killing them, and we will keep killing them so long as they are poisoning our people with narcotics," he said.
While the administration maintains that the operation was lawful and necessary, some members of Congress and legal experts have raised concerns, with certain Democrats warning that targeting survivors could constitute a war crime.
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