By Diyar Guldogan
WASHINGTON (AA) - US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday demanded Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to release the tapes of strikes in September on an alleged drug-smuggling vessel in the Caribbean Sea.
Speaking on the Senate floor, Schumer said the American people deserve transparency as questions mount over the legality of the operation and the chain of command behind the lethal strikes.
Schumer accused Hegseth of shifting his account of the events surrounding the strikes. He noted that immediately after the operation, Hegseth publicly claimed that he had watched the strikes “live” and was present “at every moment.” But on Monday night, Hegseth asserted that Admiral Frank Bradley, the commander of the US Special Operations Command, not he, made all combat decisions.
"This is so spineless," Schumer said.
"There is a very easy way for the American people to get the truth. Pete Hegseth should release the full tapes of the September 2nd attack—both the first and second strike. Not a clip, not some edited or redacted snippet—the full, unedited tapes of each strike must be released, so the American people can see what happened with their own eyes.
"Now, Pete Hegseth says he did nothing wrong. So prove it. If it’s true, he should have nothing to fear from the truth. But if he refuses to release the tapes, if he stonewalls, if he keeps hiding the facts, then the question becomes unavoidable: What is Pete Hegseth hiding? What does Pete Hegseth not want the American people to see? Is it that his story doesn’t add up? We don’t know—because Pete Hegseth, right now, is hiding the truth," he added.
- 'Hegseth should testify publicly before the committee, under oath'
Schumer also praised the bipartisan oversight efforts of Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker and Ranking Member Jack Reed, who are seeking a classified briefing from the Pentagon. Schumer insisted Hegseth must participate in that briefing and that all related documentation be provided to lawmakers.
"Let me be clear: Secretary Hegseth must be part of those briefings. We need documentation. And we need the tapes. But we should go one step further. Secretary Hegseth should testify publicly before the committee, under oath, so that the American people can hear the facts," he said.
Earlier Tuesday, Hegseth claimed that he was not in the room when Bradley ordered a follow-up attack that killed survivors of a previous US strike on the alleged drug boat.
Hegseth sought to clarify remarks he made in September in which he said he saw the attack, saying now that he only saw the initial strike and left the room when the second attack took place.
"As you can imagine, at the Department of War, we got a lot of things to do, so I didn't stick around for the hour and two hours, whatever, where all the sensitive site exploitation digitally occurs. So I moved on to my next meeting," he said at the White House during a Cabinet meeting.