Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slammed Tuesday’s closed briefing on the U.S. military’s attack on a suspected drug-trafficking ship in the Caribbean, calling it “a joke.”
“Are you satisfied with the answers you’ve gotten so far today in these classified briefings?” reporter Pablo Manriquez asked Ocasio-Cortez in a video shared on Tuesday.
The New York Democrat responded immediately: “Oh no.”
“That’s a joke, that’s a joke,” she continued.
AOC was then asked if she had any questions about the second fatal attack on a suspected drug-trafficking ship in September, which killed two people who had survived the first attack.
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calls meeting on U.S. military attack on suspected drug ship ‘not a serious intelligence briefing’ (Getty)
“None of the information that was shared was at the level of any other briefing that we’ve seen on Ukraine, China, etc.,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “This was not a serious intelligence briefing. This was an exchange of views, and if this administration wants to go to war, they need to get it from Congress.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a closed-door meeting for all members of Congress on Tuesday to discuss U.S. military strikes.
Hegseth later said the Pentagon would not publicly release unedited video of the controversial second strike attack, also known as “Double Tap,” which occurred in early September. That attack killed 11 people, two of whom initially survived.
“According to the long-term [Pentagon] “As a matter of policy, we certainly will not re-release the top-secret, complete, unedited video to the public,” Hegseth told reporters on Tuesday.
He added that members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees would see the video “but not the general public.” It’s unclear whether all members of Congress will be able to view the video.
President Donald Trump’s administration has carried out a series of attacks on suspected drug-trafficking vessels in the Pacific and Caribbean, killing at least 95 people.
Hegseth said video of the fatal attack will not be released to the public (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also expressed frustration with the meeting, saying Hegseth and administration officials “came in empty-handed.”
“If they can’t be transparent on this, how can they be transparent on all the other issues in the Caribbean?” Schumer said.
“All senators have the right to see it,” he added. “I also believe that every American deserves to see … a proper version of what happened on September 2nd. I saw it. It’s deeply disturbing … We don’t want another endless war. We don’t want to get bogged down, and given Trump’s erratic inconsistency on this issue — I’m concerned about that, as are many Americans.”
Meanwhile, administration officials insist that the two dozen attacks they carried out were within the bounds of the law, a point supported by the administration’s notification to Congress that the United States is officially in an “armed conflict” with the drug cartels, whom the president has labeled “unlawful combatants.”
A second firing on the ship was ordered on Sept. 2 by Adm. Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley, who also addressed lawmakers at a closed briefing earlier this month.
