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Republicans, Democrats emerge from boat strike briefing with clashing takeaways · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: Hello, everone on Major garretton Washington, welcome to the takeout.
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  Speaker 1: The explanations from President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegsith
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  Speaker 1: have been at times vague and halting. Heg Seth even
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  Speaker 1: invoked fog of war as a cover for blurry details
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  Speaker 1: that left Congress to call on military commanders for clarity
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  Speaker 1: about what happened on September second, off the coast of Venezuela,
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  Speaker 1: when numerous US military air strikes hit a vessel caring
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  Speaker 1: drugs and in what fighting conditions. Survivors of the first
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  Speaker 1: strike were left in Democrats and Republicans emerged afterward and
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  Speaker 1: agreed on three things. Drugs were on the boat. The
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  Speaker 1: Defense Secretary did not say kill them all or issue
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  Speaker 1: a no quarter order. Also, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs,
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  Speaker 1: Dan Kine, and Special Operations Commander Admiral Frank Bradley answered
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  Speaker 1: every question and retained bipartisan support and confidence from their
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  Speaker 1: opinions diverge after watching video footage of the strikes. Arkansas
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  Speaker 1: Republican Senator Tom Cotton with reporters.
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  Speaker 2: I want to thank Admiral Bradley and General Kine for
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  Speaker 2: coming to brief about the strikes. On September second, which
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  Speaker 2: were righteous strikes. I saw two survivors trying to flip
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  Speaker 2: a boat loaded with drugs down for the United States
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  Speaker 2: back over so they could stay in the fight and
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  Speaker 2: potentially give them to all the contacts. We heard of
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  Speaker 2: other Narco terrorist boats in the area coming to their
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  Speaker 2: aid to recover their carrero and recover those Narco terrorists.
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  Speaker 2: And just like you would blow up a boat off
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  Speaker 2: of the Somali coast or the Amini coast, and you'd
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  Speaker 2: come back and strike it again if it still had
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  Speaker 2: terrorists and it still had explosives or missiles, Admiral Bradley
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  Speaker 2: and Secretary had said exactly what we would expect them
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  Speaker 2: to do.
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  Speaker 1: Cotton also said a wide array of military legal advisors
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  Speaker 1: watched the attack and signed up.
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  Speaker 2: This was witnessed by hundred, literally hundreds of uniform and
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  Speaker 2: civilian personnel at the Pentagon, at Fort Bragg, at other installations.
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  Speaker 2: Dozens of them were lawyers. Everybody was watching. Everybody had
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  Speaker 2: seeing the intelligence and the legal basis leading up to
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  Speaker 2: these strikes.
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  Speaker 1: Democrats saw something more troubling. Here's Delaware Democratic Senator Chris Coons.
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  Speaker 3: I think it'd be hard to watch the series of
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  Speaker 3: videos and not be troubled by it. So I don't
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  Speaker 3: reach the same conclusion that Senator Cotton does if you're
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  Speaker 3: describing it as righteous.
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  Speaker 1: Coons also described what occurred in the second, third, and
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  Speaker 1: fourth strikes.
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  Speaker 3: In a second strike, they were killed, and in a
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  Speaker 3: third and fourth strike, the boat was hum.
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  Speaker 1: And this is Connecticut Congressman Jim Hines, top Democrat on
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  Speaker 1: the House Intelligence Committee.
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  Speaker 4: What I saw in that room was one of the
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  Speaker 4: most troubling things I've seen in my time in public service.
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  Speaker 4: You have two individuals in clear distress without any means
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  Speaker 4: of locomotion with the vessel, who were killed by the
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  Speaker 4: United States. Any American who sees the video that I
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  Speaker 4: saw will see the United States military attacking shipwrecked sailors.
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  Speaker 4: Bad guys, bad guys, But attacking shipwrecked sailors. Now there's
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  Speaker 4: a whole set of contextual items that the admiral explained. Yes,
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  Speaker 4: they were carrying drugs, they were not in the position
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  Speaker 4: to continue their mission in any way.
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  Speaker 1: We turned out of Nicole Killian on Capitol Hill. To
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  Speaker 1: summarize the day, a lot happened. Nicole take it away.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, that's right. Well, I think you summarized it pretty
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  Speaker 5: succinctly as well. I mean, look, there was some consensus
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  Speaker 5: on the part of lawmakers who did appreciate the Chairman
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  Speaker 5: of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Cain for coming in,
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  Speaker 5: Admiral MIDG. Bradley, of Frank Mitch Bradley for coming in
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  Speaker 5: as well, obviously being the one who carried out those strikes.
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  Speaker 5: We did try to ask them questions as they briefed lawmakers,
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  Speaker 5: but unsurprisingly, they did not respond to our questions, including
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  Speaker 5: those we asked about whether Admiral Bradley takes responsibility for
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  Speaker 5: those incidents. But that being said, there were diverging views
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  Speaker 5: over really that point and that report which emanated initially
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  Speaker 5: from the Washington Post about these two survivors following the
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  Speaker 5: initial boat strike and whether or not they were you know,
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  Speaker 5: just clinging out there for their lives or whether they
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  Speaker 5: were trying to get back onto that boat and you know,
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  Speaker 5: cover up whatever drugs they had. So there were some
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  Speaker 5: disparities in terms of you know, lawmakers, as you mentioned,
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  Speaker 5: some who felt that the video was disturbing wanted more
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  Speaker 5: clarity around the circumstances. Others who feel that Admiral Bradley
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  Speaker 5: did what he was supposed to do. That being said,
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  Speaker 5: you know many this was just a select group of
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  Speaker 5: lawmakers that were brief just the leaders of you know, House, Insenate,
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  Speaker 5: Armed Services, House Incentive Intelligence, and a few other select lawmakers.
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  Speaker 5: So I did have a chance to speak with the
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  Speaker 5: head of the Senate Armed Services Committee today, Roger Wicker,
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  Speaker 5: and I asked him if he anticipates more briefings, more hearings.
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  Speaker 5: He said that he believes that there are other lawmakers
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  Speaker 5: who would like to be briefed, So whether or not
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  Speaker 5: that transpires in the future remains to be seen. But
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  Speaker 5: he did feel relatively satisfied by today's briefing, who he
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  Speaker 5: attributed to both experienced and capable leaders. So obviously these
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  Speaker 5: investigations will continue on the part of House and Senate
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  Speaker 5: Armed Services. And like I said, whether or not we
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  Speaker 5: see additional briefings or hearings, I think remains to be seen.
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  Speaker 1: Center Worker is a key figure on all of this
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  Speaker 1: because it was his curiosity about this that led to
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  Speaker 1: the briefing in the very first place on a bipartisan basis.
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  Speaker 1: Nicole Chillyon on Capitol Hill, thank you very much,