Senate Republicans block Schiff effort to force release of Caribbean strike footage

Senate Republicans blocked an attempt by Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., to force the release of unedited footage to Congress and the public of the U.S. military’s controversial Sept. 2 double-tap strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean.

Schiff’s move Wednesday afternoon followed passage of the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which included a provision to require the Pentagon to release all unedited footage of the strikes in the Caribbean to Congress in exchange for full funding of the Department of War’s travel expenses.

His bill went a step further and was specifically geared toward the early September double strike against an alleged drug boat that has divided lawmakers in recent weeks, particularly over whether the strikes were legal.

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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed every senator on the strikes Tuesday, but Senate Democrats left unsatisfied because they weren’t shown the footage of the strikes. Hegseth argued that the Pentagon has a longstanding policy to not release unedited, top-secret footage.

“The public should see this, and I hope that we’ll have support to make it public,” Schiff said after the meeting. “I found the legal explanations and the strategic explanations incoherent, but I think the American people should see this video. And all members of Congress should have that opportunity. I certainly want it for myself.”

But the push was blocked by Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., who argued on the floor that Schiff’s motives may have been politically influenced and that when former President Barack Obama used drones during his administration, there wasn’t near the same level of hand-wringing. 

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Schiff’s legislation would have given Hegseth 10 days to make the unedited footage available to all members of Congress and 15 days to fully release the footage to the public.

Broadly, Senate Republicans support the release of the footage, either directly to the Senate Armed Services or Senate Intelligence committees, but some have stopped short of demanding a wide rollout.

Mullin argued that only certain lawmakers should get access to the footage who are on the proper committees and who have the necessary security clearances to view it.

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“There’s a lot of members that are going to walk out of there, that are going to leak classified information, and there’s got to be certain ones that you hold accountable. So, not everybody can go through the same background checks that need to be able to get cleared on this,” he said.

But there is still a desire among the GOP for all of Congress and the public to see the footage.

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Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., contended that the administration has released every other video related to the strikes and that “they brag about killing these people, unarmed people.”

“They brag about how mighty they are and how powerful they are, and they show us the clips almost instantaneously when they blow people up,” he said. “They don’t want to show the image of blowing up people clinging to wreckage, destroying their entire narrative.”