Trump backtracks on boat strike video release and says Hegseth will make final decision: Latest updates

The top lawmakers on Capitol Hill, known as the “Gang of Eight,” will be brief behind closed doors Tuesday, by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who will present their long-term national security strategy for the United States.

The Gang of Eight refers to the House and Senate minority and majority leaders and the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate intelligence committees.

The trio are expected to also be asked about the Donald Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, particularly the first missile blasts on September 2 in which two survivors were killed in a second missile launch that has been the subject of controversy in recent weeks.

Separately, Republican Sen. Roger Wicker, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters Monday that he is this week planning to speak this week with Admiral Alvin Holsey, who stepped down as head of U.S Southern Command after less than a year on the job, and is believed to have expressed concern about the strikes to Hegseth before being forced out.

The president has said that the decision on whether or not to release footage of the deadly September 2 “double tap” missile strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean rests with his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

“Whatever Hegseth wants to do is okay with me,” the president told reporters Monday, backtracking on his own comments last week that “whatever” video the Pentagon possesses “we’d certainly release, no problem,” which he now denies having said.

When asked to commit to the publication of the video by ABC News’s senior political correspondent Rachel Scott, who simply presented Trump with his own words, the president once again lashed out, calling her “the most obnoxious reporter in the whole place. Let me just tell you: you are an obnoxious – actually a terrible – reporter and it’s always the same thing with you.”

Hello and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of the Donald Trump administration as the president’s top defense officials prepare to brief the top lawmakers on Capitol Hill about their long-term national security plans for the United States.