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( NewsNation ) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other key national security officials are scheduled to brief Congressional leaders Tuesday on the administration’s actions in Venezuela.
The briefing is expected to be given to the so-called “Gang of 8,” which includes the top leaders of each party in each chamber, as well as the Senate and House Intelligence Committee’s chairman and ranking minority member.
Hegseth and other officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio , are expected to address boat strikes on alleged drug-trafficking vessels off the coast of Venezuela. One in particular — a follow-up attack that killed two survivors of a Sept. 2 strike — has stirred controversy on both sides of the aisle for weeks.
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Hegseth has not committed to releasing a video of the controversial second strike, which one lawmaker described as “ deeply troubling ” after reviewing it.
Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said the U.S. strike “killed two people who were in deep distress and had neither the means nor obviously the intent to continue their mission.”
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the second strike “justified and righteous.”
President Donald Trump on Monday said he’s deferring to Hegseth on whether to release the video of the deadly strike.
“Whatever Hegseth wants to do is okay with m e … Whatever he decides is okay with me,” Trump said.
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Venezuela, meanwhile, has been flexing its own defenses, with President Nicolás Maduro prepared to deploy forces if the Trump administration further escalates.
“The more power the nation has, the more secure the path to peace will be, to build our own model based on maximum social happiness, which is what inspires us, according to the liberator Simón Bolívar,” Maduro said.
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