Hegseth confirms footage of Venezuelan drug boat | Political News

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth dispelled rumors on Wednesday that the harrowing footage of a missile strike on a Venezuelan “drug vessel,” which was posted on Truth Social by Donald Trump, was generated by AI.

Appearing on a morning section of Fox News, the previous conservative pundit addressed the strike and delved into the president’s motives for it.

“The president put that video of him eviscerating, blowing up, that boat coming across with all of the drugs on board. And the president said on Truth Social, ‘Let them be on notice to anyone bringing drugs to the U.S., beware.’ So, the president is sending a message to other cartels, right?” Fox & Friends host Ainsley Earhardt requested Hegseth.

“A very clear one,” Hegseth responded. “And I can tell you that was definitely not artificial intelligence. I watched it live.”

Rumors about the video’s true nature have been called into query after Trump told reporters on Tuesday to “blame AI” if one thing dangerous occurs. “If something happens, really bad, just blame AI,” the Republican chief said, allegedly in jest as he addressed a video that circulated over the weekend of an open White House window, with a contractor seen throwing what seems to be a black trash bag out of it.

The surprising video of the strike against the alleged drug vessel was posted by the president himself on Truth Social on Tuesday night time, just after that particular announcement. It exhibits the second a missile wipes out the boat, which speeds across the ocean. All 11 people on board have been killed.

The carnage from the strike is seen in the declassified footage, which exhibits the boat on fire following the strike, with what seem to be our bodies mendacity inside it.

“Earlier this morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” Trump wrote in the post. “TDA is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, operating under the control of Nicolas Maduro, responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere.”

“The strike occurred while the terrorists were at sea in International waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States. The strike resulted in 11 terrorists killed in action. No U.S. Forces were harmed in this strike,” he continued. “Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE! Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!!!!!!!!!”

The president went on to attempt to justify the strike during a bilateral assembly with Polish President Karol Nawrocki on Wednesday, during which a reporter requested him about the strike and the deaths it triggered.

“Why were the men killed instead of taken into custody?” a reporter requested the president. Trump’s response was a non-answer: “On the boat were massive amounts of drugs. We have tapes of them speaking. It was massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people. And everybody fully understands that. In fact, you see it — you see the bags of drugs all over the boat.”

“And they were hit, obviously. They won’t be doing it again,” he continued, referring to not only those who died but to TDA. “And then, I think a lot of other people won’t be doing it again when they watch that tape. They’re going to say, ‘Let’s not do this.'”

The president went on to say that it is about the administration having to “protect our country.”

In his Fox News look, Hegseth additional detailed the preventative nature of the strike, stating, “We knew exactly who was in that boat. We knew exactly what they were doing. And we knew exactly who they represented. And that was Tren de Aragua, a narco-terrorist organization designated by the United States, trying to poison our country with illicit drugs.”

“Last year, under the Biden administration, all four years, 100,000 Americans died from drug-related — from drugs, from the use of drugs — many of which poured in from Central and South America through our southwest border,” he added, slamming Biden’s border coverage, which is believed by many in the MAGA camp to be an open border coverage.

“Now, we’re sealing the border, but President Trump is willing to go on offense in ways that others have not been and to send that clear signal to Tren de Aragua, Cártel de los Soles, and others emanating from Venezuela,” he continued.

“We’re not going to allow this kind of activity. You’re poisoning our people. We’ve got incredible assets, and they are gathering in the region. And so, you want to try to traffic drugs? It’s a new day. It’s a different day. And so, those 11 drug traffickers are no longer with us, sending a very clear signal that this is an activity the United States is not going to tolerate in our hemisphere.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Tuesday that the U.S. navy carried out a deadly strike on a ship in the southern Caribbean he said was carrying medicine from Venezuela.

“As @potus just announced moments ago, today the U.S. military conducted a lethal strike in the southern Carribean against a drug vessel which had departed from Venezuela and was being operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization,” Rubio wrote on his official X web page.

Trump did certainly tout the strike during a press convention in the Oval Office on Tuesday, during which he announced the everlasting homing of U.S. Space Command in Huntsville, Alabama, from its current, short-term home in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Neither Rubio nor Trump offered extra particulars about the strike, and the press workplace of Venezuela’s authorities did not immediately reply to The Associated Press’s request for remark about the announcement.

Trump said during the press convention, “We just, over the last few minutes, literally shot out a boat — a drug-carrying boat. [A] lotta drugs in that boat. And you’ll be seeing that, and you’ll be reading about that.”

“It just happened moments ago,” he continued. “Our great general, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who has been so incredible, including what took place in Iran, knocking out potential nuclear power for a long time to come — within a month, they would have had it if we didn’t do what we did — but he gave us a little bit of a briefing, and you’ll see.”

“And there’s more where that came from. We have a lot of drugs pouring into our country, coming in for a long time, and we just, these came out of Venezuela, and coming out very heavily from Venezuela,” he added. “A lot of things are coming out of Venezuela. So, we took it out, and you’ll get to see that after this meeting is over.”

The transfer follows Trump’s latest choice to increase U.S. naval presence off the coast of Venezuela to counter Latin American drug cartels. Officials haven’t signaled plans for a land incursion, however, according to GWN.

President Nicolás Maduro has ordered troop deployments along the coast and border with Colombia and urged Venezuelans to be a part of civilian militias in response to the elevated U.S. navy presence.

Trump has designated a number of of the cartels as overseas terrorist organizations, and his transfer on Tuesday against the drug vessel signifies an escalation by his administration against the cartels.

Rubio will go to Mexico and Ecuador this week and was already on his manner to both on Tuesday when he penned the announcement on his X web page.