Hegseth says Pentagon won’t release video of strike on drug boat survivors to public
Pete Hegseth, US secretary of defense, speaks during a Mexican Border Defense medal presentation in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. US President Donald Trump said he was classifying fentanyl as a “weapon of mass destruction” in his latest push to ratchet up pressure on Latin America over drug trafficking. Photographer: Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters on Tuesday that he won’t release the full unedited version of video showing a Sept. 2 attack on a suspected drug boat that killed 11 people, calling the video “top secret” and said releasing that version to the public would violate “longstanding Department of War policy.”
Democrats balked at the explanation, which he also shared during a closed-door briefing with Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Capitol Hill. They note that Hegseth, President Donald Trump and the U.S. Southern Command for several weeks have been posting edited clips of some two dozen boat attacks on their social media accounts.
“In keeping with longstanding Department of War policy, Department of Defense policy, of course we’re not going to release a top secret full unedited video of that to the general public,” Hegseth told reporters. Lawmakers on the House and Senate armed services committees and those overseeing appropriations will see it, Hegseth added, “but not the general public.”
Some Republicans said they thought the video should at least be shared more broadly in Congress in the interest in transparency and because it would show a lawful operation.
“I think the video should be given to everybody in Congress,” said South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a longtime ally of Trump.
“Release it. Make your own decisions,” he later added, saying “I’d like all of us to see it.”
At issue is whether the Sept. 2 military strike on the alleged drug boat amounted to a war crime, as some lawmakers have suggested. Officials have confirmed there were four military strikes against the boat — the first strike killing nine of the 11 people aboard. Some 40 minutes later, a second strike was ordered to kill the remaining two survivors. Two more strikes were ordered to sink the boat, officials say.
Trump initially said he would release the video, telling reporters on Dec. 3 “whatever they have, we’d certainly release, no problem.” Trump later backtracked, saying he would defer to Hegseth.
Some lawmakers have seen extended portions of the video of the strikes in a classified briefing earlier this month, but described the state of the survivors before being killed in a second strike in starkly different terms. Democrats insisted the survivors were helpless and should have been rescued to comply with international laws that call for either sides in a conflict to help combatants who fall overboard or are shipwrecked. Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, however, said the survivors were trying to “flip” the boat “so they could stay in the fight.”
Adm. Mitch Bradley, who ordered the strikes, was expected to return to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to brief the House and Senate armed services committees behind closed doors, two officials told ABC News on Tuesday.
After two weeks of saying he was reviewing the matter, Hegseth told lawmakers during the closed-door briefing on Tuesday that he has no plans to do so. He said Adm. Mitch Bradley, who ordered the strikes, would share the video with members of the House and Senate armed services committees on Wednesday.
He added that Bradley “has done a fantastic job, has made all the right calls, and we’re glad he’ll be there to do it.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that if classification was a problem, Hegseth could at least share the video with every senator in a classified setting.
“Every senator is entitled to see it,” Schumer said.
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. immigration authorities have detained a woman who is the mother of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s nephew, according to a source familiar with the arrest.
A DHS spokesperson identified the woman as Bruna Caroline Ferreira.
A reporter with ABC New Hampshire station WMUR spoke with Leavitt’s brother, Michael Leavitt, who also confirmed the arrest and said she was detained a few weeks ago.
According to Michael Leavitt, his 11-year-old son has lived with him since he was born but says the child maintains a relationship with his mother, WMUR reported.
A DHS spokesperson described Ferreira, a Brazilian national, as a “criminal illegal alien” who has a previous arrest for battery and overstayed a visa that expired in 1999.
“ICE arrested Bruna Caroline Ferreria, a criminal illegal alien from Brazil. She has a previous arrest for battery. She entered the U.S. on a B2 tourist visa that required her to depart the U.S. by June 6, 1999. She is currently at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center and is in removal proceedings. Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, all individuals unlawfully present in the United States are subject to deportation,” the spokesperson said.
Todd Pomerleau, an attorney for Ferreira spoke with Boston ABC station WCVB, and pushed back on claims that Ferreira has a criminal history.
“Bruna has no criminal record whatsoever, I don’t know where that is coming from. Show us the proof,” Pomerleau told.
Pomerleau also said Ferreira entered the country lawfully, previously held DACA status and is currently in the process of obtaining a green card. He said his client was arrested in her car in Massachusetts after being stopped with no warrant, adding that he now has to litigate her case in Louisiana thousands of miles away from her home. Pomerleau said he did not believe that his client’s connection to Karoline Leavitt could affect the case, adding that he believes it’s just “happenstance.”
The White House declined to comment.
An online fundraising campaign set up by a person claiming to be Ferreira’s sister says she was brought to the country when she was a child in 1998.
“Anyone who knows Bruna knows the kind of person she is. She is hardworking, kind, and always the first to offer help when someone needs it. Whether it’s supporting family, friends, or even strangers, Bruna has a heart that puts others before herself,” said Graziela Dos Santos Rodrigues.
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court has declined to take up the appeal of Ghislaine Maxwell, who was contesting her prosecution and conviction on grounds that the government had violated a non-prosecution agreement made with Jeffrey Epstein before his death.
The Supreme Court did not explain its decision.
Maxwell’s attorney, David O. Markus said he was “disappointed” by the Supreme Court’s decision.
“We’re, of course, deeply disappointed that the Supreme Court declined to hear Ghislaine Maxwell’s case,” Markus said in a statement. “But this fight isn’t over. Serious legal and factual issues remain, and we will continue to pursue every avenue available to ensure that justice is done.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Former Director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Susan Monarez arrives to testify before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on September 17, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez is appearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on Wednesday for her first public appearance since she was pushed out of her position leading the nation’s public health agency.
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, the panel’s chair and a doctor from Louisiana who was one of the key votes to confirm Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said he was focused on learning what led to the abrupt firing of Monarez just weeks after her confirmation.
“Part of our responsibility today is to ask ourselves, if someone is fired 29 days after every Republican votes for her, the Senate confirms her, the secretary said in her swearing in that she has ‘unimpeachable scientific credentials’ and the president called her an incredible mother and dedicated public servant — like what happened? Did we fail? Was there something we should have done differently?” Cassidy said.
Monarez, in her opening statement, gave a detailed timeline on the chain of events that she said led to her ouster.
“Since my removal, several explanations have been offered: that I told the secretary I would resign, that I was not aligned with administration priorities, or that I was untrustworthy. None of those reflect what actually happened,” Monarez said.
Monarez said there was a meeting in which she says Kennedy told her to preemptively accept recommendations from a CDC vaccine advisory panel and to fire career officials overseeing vaccine policy.
“I would not commit to that, and I believe it is the true reason I was fired,” Monarez said. She later added, “I was fired for holding the line on scientific integrity.”
She also claimed that Kennedy spoke to the White House “several times” prior to the meeting about firing her.
Kennedy, in his hearing before the Senate Finance Committee on Sept. 4, disputed Monarez’s version of events, which she first shared that same day in an op-ed published by the Wall Street Journal.
“Did you, in fact, do what Director Monarez has said you did, which is tell her, ‘Just go along with vaccine recommendations, even if you didn’t think such recommendations aligned with scientific evidence?'” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., asked Kennedy.
“No, I did not,” Kennedy replied.
In a fiery exchange with Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Warren noted that Kennedy had just a month before described Monarez as “unimpeachable” after she was confirmed.
“I told her that she had to resign because I asked her, ‘Are you a trustworthy person?’ And she said, ‘No,'” Kennedy replied. “If you had an employee who told you they weren’t trustworthy, would you ask them to resign, Senator?”
Monarez on Wednesday, however, testified Kennedy told her the childhood vaccine schedule would be changing in September and “I needed to be on board with it.” Monarez said Kennedy spoke to President Trump “every day” about changing the childhood vaccine schedule.
“He did not have any data or science to point to,” Monarez said. “As a matter of fact, we got into an exchange where I had suggested that I would be open to changing childhood vaccine schedules if the evidence or science were supportive, and he responded that there was no science or evidence associated with the childhood vaccine schedule. And he elaborated that CDC had never collected the science or data to make it available related to the safety and efficacy.
“To be clear, he said there was not science or data, but that he still expected you to change the schedule?” Sen. Cassidy asked.
“Correct,” Monarez said.
Monarez is being joined at Wednesday’s hearing by Deb Houry, former chief medical officer and deputy director for program and science at the CDC, who was one of four top CDC officials who resigned in protest after Monarez was ousted.
The high-profile departures raised alarm over Kennedy’s vaccine policy agenda, which the public health officials said they were being asked to endorse without adequate science. Kennedy stood by the recent shakeups at CDC, saying they were “absolutely necessary adjustments to restore the agency to its role as the world’s gold standard public health agency with a central mission of protecting Americans from infectious disease.”
Sen. Cassidy told Monarez and Houry on Wednesday that “the onus is upon you to prove that the criticisms leveled by the secretary are not true.”
Cassidy’s decision to pursue oversight of the CDC turmoil signifies a new, firmer era for his relationship with Kennedy — a shift was on full display during Kennedy’s own hearing before the Senate earlier this month.
Democratic Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, who sits on the HELP Committee and has called for Kennedy to step down, said Cassidy’s decision to call Monarez to testify showed a continued “weakening” of support for the secretary.
“I think Secretary Kennedy’s actions at the Finance Committee left a lot of not just Democrats, but Republicans very unsettled,” Blunt Rochester told ABC News in an interview.
“The fact that a Republican is chairing the committee and called for her to come is a positive step, and maybe shows there is some weakening. But the reality is, you know, Secretary Kennedy needs to go — whether that is he’s fired, whether he quits, he is unsafe for America,” she said.
During the Senate Finance Committee hearing on Sept. 4, Cassidy was joined by two other Republicans on the committee — Sens. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the second most powerful GOP senator, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who announced earlier this year he was not running for reelection — in expressing concern over Kennedy’s handling of vaccines and the CDC.
Other high-level Republicans have also voiced criticism, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who said Kennedy had to “take responsibility” for firing Monarez just four weeks after the Senate confirmed her. Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said she didn’t see any “justification” for the termination.
Republican Sen. John Kennedy, Cassidy’s counterpart in Louisiana, called Kennedy’s handling of the CDC a “multiple vehicle pileup.”
Monarez, who HHS publicly announced was “no longer director” on a Wednesday afternoon in late August, drew widespread attention when she refused to leave her post, asking Trump to weigh in and fire her directly if he agreed with his HHS secretary. She said she was pushed out because she wouldn’t agree to rubber-stamp Kennedy’s agenda or fire high-ranking scientists.
The move put a spotlight on Kennedy’s vaccine policy changes, which have ramped up in recent weeks. Kennedy canceled around $500 million in contracts for mRNA vaccines, changed the recommendations for healthy children and pregnant women to receive COVID-19 vaccinations and, through the FDA, oversaw the narrowing of approval for the updated COVID shots this fall only to people over 65, or younger Americans with underlying conditions.
A CDC committee will soon meet to discuss vaccine recommendations more broadly, including the measles, mumps, rubella, varicella (MMRV) vaccine, and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).
Kennedy has replaced all of the members of the committee with handpicked people, some of whom have expressed criticism of vaccines. Asked by ABC News if he plans to limit access to any of those vaccines, Kennedy said the committee would decide after a “real gold standard scientific review.”
Monarez on Wednesday expressed concerns with the composition of the advisory committee.
“Based on what I observed during my tenure, there is real risk that recommendations could be made restricting access to vaccines for children and others in need without rigorous scientific review. With no permanent CDC director in place, those recommendations could be adopted,” Monarez said.
