Members of Congress got a closed-door briefing on Tuesday about September's second U.S. strike on an alleged drug boat that killed survivors of the initial attack.

Washington

Members of Congress received a closed-door briefing from top military officials and viewed classified footage of a second strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed he authorized the initial attack, while Admiral Frank Mitch Bradley ordered the follow-up strike on survivors. 

Lawmakers' reactions to the video were mixed, with some finding it troubling and others unconcerned. Both the Senate and House Armed Services Committees have launched investigations into the incident and related issues, including the recent 'Signal Gate' communication breach. Further hearings and the potential public release of the video remain under consideration.

Differing reactions from lawmakers on classified boat strike video

Hello and thank you for joining us. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is on the defensive, pushing back against accusations of potential war crimes and potentially endangering U.S. troops. First on Capitol Hill, members of Congress got a closed-door briefing today with Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Koehn and Admiral Frank Mitch Bradley. During that meeting, lawmakers saw footage of the controversial second strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean. Secretary Hegseth says he authorized the initial attack, but he says it was Admiral Bradley who directly ordered a follow-up strike on survivors. Also in Washington today, the Pentagon's inspector general released a review of what's become known as Signal Gate. Back in March, a reporter with The Atlantic was mistakenly added to the group chat with top U.S. officials on the messaging app Signal. In that chat, Hegseth was giving real-time updates on military strikes in Yemen. The inspector general says Hegseth jeopardized sensitive information and could have endangered U.S. service members. For his part, Hegseth is treating the report as somewhat of a victory, writing in part on social media, quote, no classified information, total exoneration, case closed. We have CBS News team coverage on all this. Nicole Killian is on Capitol Hill. Eleanor Watson is covering the Pentagon. And Weijia Jiang is at the White House. Nicole, let's start with you. How are lawmakers reacting to what they saw and heard today? Well, you know, overall, there is a general consensus and appreciation for joint chairman of the chiefs of staff General Dan Cain and Admiral Bradley for coming here to brief lawmakers. And there also is a consensus among many of the lawmakers that Secretary Hegseth did not give this kill-them-all order, according to Admiral Bradley, through these briefings that he gave to lawmakers. But where there is some distinction is really about the characterization of these strikes and whether or not that double-tap strike, if you will, was warranted once those survivors were spotted. Take a listen to how lawmakers responded when they saw that portion of the video during closed-door briefings today. I think it'd be hard to watch this series of videos and not be troubled by it. The video was very troubling, and I think more people need to see it. I didn't see anything in there that concerned me. Look, these videos have been made and released for 25 years. You've all seen videos that have been released of drone strikes or helicopter strikes on terrorist groups in Afghanistan or Syria or Iraq or Yemen. There's nothing novel or new here. So on the one hand, you have some lawmakers, particularly many Democrats, who found some of the video troubling. You have others like Senator Tom Cotton there, Republicans, and he didn't find it troubling. So that being said, in talking to a number of lawmakers both on and off camera, some obviously still have questions, want to know more, believe that this video potentially should be released at some point. So we will see where the investigation goes from here. Where does it go from here? Do we have any indication? Well, I did have an opportunity to speak with Roger Wicker, who is the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Overall, he seemed generally pleased with today's briefings. But I did ask him if he expects to move forward with hearings. He did acknowledge that he believes that lawmakers both in the House and Senate do want to hear more. But, again, kind of what shape and form that may take, whether or not there will be additional briefings or eventually a hearing, again, remains to be seen. What we do know is both the Senate Armed Services Committee and House Armed Services Committee have both launched investigations into this matter. So those probes will continue. Nicole Killian, thank you.

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