Bipartisan push grows in Senate to force release of unedited Caribbean strike footage
Partisan fights played out publicly in high-profile votes in the Senate this week, but lawmakers are quietly finding common ground in their support of a push to have the unedited...
By Fox News · Fox News
Partisan fights played out publicly in high-profile votes in the Senate this week, but lawmakers are quietly finding common ground in their support of a push to have the unedited footage of Caribbean boat strikes released. Tucked into the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is a provision that would require the Pentagon to release the full, unedited footage of boat strikes carried out in the Caribbean in exchange for Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s travel budget to be fully funded. The Trump administration has come under scrutiny on Capitol Hill for repeated strikes on alleged drug boats from Venezuela over the last several months, which came to a head last week in the wake of the deadly Sept. 2 double-strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea. GOP SAYS TRUMP FACING TOUGHER SCRUTINY FOR CARIBBEAN STRIKES THAN OBAMA DID FOR DRONE PROGRAM "I think we need to see all of the video footage, particularly of the second strike from Sept. 2," Sen. Rand Paul , R-Ky., told Fox News Digital. Lawmakers in the upper chamber don’t know who slipped the provision into the colossal legislative package, including Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who told reporters, "I would imagine that it got added at the leadership level." The massive legislative package sailed through the House on Thursday and is set for a series of procedural tests in the Senate beginning on Monday. And many lawmakers broadly support the release of the footage, particularly of the double-tap strike, to Congress. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., who is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Fox News Digital that his committee, and "maybe the [Senate] Intel Committee," should have complete access to the unedited footage. "And then, based upon that, we can decide whether or not we would push further," Rounds said. "But let us look at the facts first." GOP FRACTURES OVER HEGSETH'S 'DOUBLE-TAP' CARIBBEAN STRIKE AS CONGRESS PROBES LEGALITY Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.…