How bad is the video of strike two? Will the 2026 election be GOP's strike three

by annieli for Dirt farming in the South by South West Wing of the White House

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Friday, Dec. 05, 2025 Friday, Dec. 05, 2025 at 4:06:36am PST

G7AqZ0gXEAE41wb1 — Tom Cotton is saying that what he saw in the video of the second strike was the survivors of the first strike trying to "flip" the vessel back over.

UPDATE: Saturday, Dec 6, 2025 · 12:20:50 PM +00:00 · annieli

New: Alleged traffickers killed by the US military in a strike on September 2 were not heading toward the US, Adm Bradley told lawmakers yesterday, per people briefed.
Instead they were heading to link up with another vessel that was bound for Suriname. https://t.co/pOpkschgJh
— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) December 5, 2025

Video footage showing a U.S. military strike on alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean Sea shows two people attempting to flip their capsized vessel when they were attacked again, multiple lawmakers said Thursday after meeting with the Navy admiral who oversaw the controversial mission.

The recording was shown during meetings on Capitol Hill featuring Adm. Frank M. Bradley, the commander who oversaw the Sept. 2 operation that entailed four strikes in all. The attack killed 11 people, including the two people who survived the first blast that hit their boat.

Democrats emerged from the meetings alarmed and vowed to press ahead with congressional probes into the attack’s legality. Some Republicans who have been staunchly loyal to the Trump administration defended the operation.

Rep. Jim Himes (Connecticut), the House Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat, described the footage as “one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service.” The two survivors, he said, were “in clear distress” after their boat was “destroyed.”

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Himes: It was exceedingly hard to watch. Even if you stipulate that it is a war, there is a very specific prohibition against killing individuals who have been removed from the fight. And there is no question that these individuals were removed from the fight.

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— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) Dec 4, 2025 at 3:27 PM

Publishing all the other boat murder videos but refusing to release the one of the two survivors being killed is an admission they know exactly how bad it looks. There's no other distinction to draw there, no reason to publish the others while withholding that one.

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Q: Will you release video of the second September 2 boat strike? TRUMP: Whatever they have, we'd certainly release. No problem
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-12-03T21:12:41.793Z

“Follow up question…the strike took place over 3 months ago, if there was a 2nd strike, why didn’t you release that video when you released video of the 1st strike?”

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2 weeks

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— Serendipity (@serendipityinfl.bsky.social) Dec 3, 2025 at 4:20 PM

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842,000 Americans died from overdoses in the last 25 years, 500,000 from opioids. If we’re hunting narco-terrorists we can probably stop blowing up fishing boats and start blowing up boardrooms.
— 𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕖 𝔾𝕦𝕣𝕝 (@sundaedivine.bsky.social) Dec 4, 2025 at 11:02 PM