Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth detail the Trump administration’s classified counter-drug strikes in the Caribbean, targeting terrorist cartels killing Americans and trafficking drugs. With 22+ bipartisan briefings, they defend the mission’s success while acknowledging Senator Lindsey Graham’s skepticism about its long-term goals. The rare use of force—less frequent than interdiction—aims to disrupt hemispheric threats, but broader strategy questions linger amid classified constraints. [Automatically generated summary]
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke briefly with reporters about the Trump administration's decision to strike boats in the Caribbean.
They also talk about the Defense Department's decision to not release the full unedited video to the public.
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham says he supports the Trump administration's decision to strike boats in the Caribbean, but questions the overall objective.
Obviously, we had a classified hearing, so the details of which we can't discuss.
It's, I believe, our 22nd or 23rd bipartisan engagement.
We'll continue to engage with Congress on this.
We're headed to the House now to do a similar briefing and provide updates on this counter-drug mission, which is focused on dismantling the infrastructure of these terrorist organizations that are operating in our hemisphere, undermining the security of Americans, killing Americans, poisoning Americans.
And this has been a highly successful mission that's ongoing and continued.
And we're pleased to be here today to update Congress on how that's developing and how that's moving forward.
As I said, I believe it's our 22nd, 23rd such engagement, certainly at least the fourth or fifth that I've been involved in, and those will remain and be ongoing.
It is the 22nd bipartisan briefing we've had on a highly successful mission to counter designated terrorist organizations, cartels, bringing weapons, weapons meaning drugs, to the American people and poisoning the American people for far too long.
So we're proud of what we're doing, able to lay it out very directly to these senators and soon to the House.