Transcription
Less than a week after President Trump said he'd have no problem releasing video of that deadly September double tap on a boat in the Caribbean, he now appears to be going back on his word. Instead, placing the decision in the hands of his defense secretary.
The change of tune comes as many members of Congress are pushing for the release of the full unedited video of the attack when the US military launched a follow-up missile after seeing two survivors of the first blast still clinging to the wreckage in the water. Top Democrats who were shown the full footage in a briefing last week described it as deeply disturbing and one of the most troubling things they've seen.
Here's what the president said about releasing that video just yesterday, followed by what he said a mere 5 days prior to that.
"Mr. President, you said you would have no problem with releasing the full video of that strike on September 2nd off the coast of Venezuela."
Secretary Hegstep now says.
"That you said that. I didn't say that. This is ABC fake news. You said that you would have no problem releasing the full bit."
"Okay. Well, Secretary Hath, whatever Hexath wants to do is okay with me."
"He now says it's under review. Are you ordering the secretary to release that full video?"
"Whatever he decides is okay with me. So, every boat we knock out of the water, every boat we save 25,000 American lives. Uh, that was a boat loaded up with drugs. I saw the video. They were trying to turn the boat back to where it could float. And we didn't want to see that because that boat was loaded up with drugs just like everything else."
"You release video of that first boat strike on September second, but not the second video. Will you release video of that strike so that the American people can see for themselves what?"
"I don't know what they have, but whatever they have, we'd certainly release. No problem."
The president yesterday also lashed out at the reporter. ABC's Rachel Scott, great reporter and a good friend, who asked him that revealing question about the restrike video. Watch.
"Are you committing to releasing the full video?"
"Didn't I just tell you that?"
"You said that it was up to obnoxious reporter in the whole place? Let me just tell you, you are an obnoxious a terrible actually a terrible reporter. And it's always the same thing with you. I told you whatever Pete Hanksath wants to do is okay with me."
So, it's far from the first time the president has bered a female reporter who was simply asking him questions about whatever the major news of day was. Want to play an exchange from last month when President Trump was pressed on the Epstein files.
"The list goes on from there. Right. Last month, the president called ABC's Mary Bruce terrible and insubordinate. He said, quote, 'Are you stupid?' to CBS's Nancy Cordis. He called New York Times White House correspondent Katie Rogers ugly. And then just over the weekend, President Trump insulted CNN's Caitlyn Collins, saying she's stupid and nasty. All of those women just absolute pros. Want to bring in now MS Now White House reporter Jake Trailer, also a pro. Let's start here on Hegathth. We're going to leave all of the president's comments about very highly competent women covering him aside."
"On Hegsth, what do you make of the fact that he's now doing this seeming reversal, initially saying no problem releasing the video, then saying it's in Heg says hands?"
"Yeah, Ali, I will say to to bringing these confident women reporters back into it really quickly, typically if you look at when he lashes out most at them and and calls them these names, normally is when they're asking questions about things that are exactly, as you said, the news of the day and the thing that he doesn't quite always have answers for. I think we saw that yesterday because I mean the video speaks for itself. It is a complete reversal over a handful of days. We're seeing that reversal from the president. We're seeing that from Secretary of Defense Pete Hexth. We're seeing the reversal. We're also seeing the shift in blame over to Frank Bradley. I think Admiral Bradley who kind of went on the hill. They he was a part of these behindthe-scenes conversations explaining to uh bipartisan members of Congress what actually happened a few weeks ago. Remember the conversation was all about Hegath and now he oversaw this. remember the quote of him saying, 'I watched it live. I was there.' That quickly shifted all of a sudden to him saying, 'Well, I was there and then I had to actually leave because I had other business to attend to.' The president's language shifting on this. He said a few days ago, one, he said that there was a second strike. He wouldn't want that. But then a couple days later, he's then saying, 'Well, it was actually a singular attack. It wasn't multiple strikes.' So, I've talked with White House officials about this. They've been relatively koi and and close-chested here, obviously, because there's a lot of really sensitive material. But what is clear is there was there was obviously something that was made apparent to the White House to HEGS where their language shifted from this was multiple attacks to this was one single attack and also this was Admiral Bradley who carried it out not the White House not Hex."
"Yeah, maybe it's sensitive material, but then also sensitivity clearly on the part of the principal players, not least of all the president of the United States. And the reason I was checking my phone while you were talking is because we had some reporting overnight that there's going to be a briefing of the gang of eight from Rubio and Hegathth later today on Capitol Hill. So again, not necessarily just focused on this, but amid a spate of questions from the Hill about what exactly happened here. And if that video gets released, important that those briefers are potentially going to get those questions. I would imagine the Democrats in front of them are certainly going to ask it, but we've heard Republicans, too, saying, 'Hey, we just need a little bit more information here.' So, that's the backdrop with which President Trump goes into today, and he heads to Pennsylvania for a rally to promote his claim that he's tackling the nation's affordability crisis, even though he's recently dismissed concerns about high prices as a hoax. The visit comes as polling shows voters trust in his economic leadership is slipping. Still, Trump insists prices are coming way down and blames Democrats for Americans cost of living struggles. Trump will speak in a critical part of the state ahead of next year's midterms. That's Monroe County, which flipped to Trump in 2024 and could help decide control of Congress next year. Only takes a handful of seats. The rally also puts the president front and center as the White House leans on Trump's star power to energize low turnout voters after Republicans lost major races last month. It seems like there is a clear recognition among Republicans, among the White House. You had Susie Wilds recently on a podcast saying president might not know it yet, but I'm going to have him campaigning like it's 2024 again. They realize that there's a difference and we've seen so many electoral examples of this since 2016 of the kinds of voters who turn out and how many when Trump's name is and isn't on the ballot. So, is this just the start of what we used to see in the first term all the time? Trump on the trail where he always seemed happiest, frankly."
"Yeah, White House officials are telling me yes, that is what they want to see. I mean, Susie said the quiet part out loud the other day when she said no, he is going to be out on the campaign trail. The White House is aware that they have an affordability issue. This has kind of been the central thing they've really tried to get the president to hone in on in the past few days. But they also say to me behind closed doors, they're aware of more than just an affordability issue. They're aware that they're losing the messaging battle when it comes to affordability. Donald Trump largely in part was elected because of his message on this and they do believe that's him at his very best is getting out on the campaign trail talking about it. The the question that none of us can predict is how on message here does Donald Trump really stay. It's also worth noting too that it's a lot easier to run as a candidate who's not currently in office because you can talk about how horrible the economy is. No matter how good the economy is, people's pocketbooks always hurt, especially around the holiday season when you're spending a lot. How does he take an economy that does have rising uh food prices, that does have inching forward unemployment, how does he spin that to the American people and tell them the economy is doing better than it actually is? That's a lot harder to do now than it was when he wasn't president."
"And you know who has insight into that? Former President Joe Biden. This is exactly the same trap that Biden and his administration were locked into for the last year, for most of their term in office, frankly, even after mounting a turnaround for the economy after COVID, helping bring jobs back, helping to just kind of stabilize an unsteady economic picture. And this was regularly the thing that they saw, a healthy stock market, or at least one that was doing well. And then also the fact that Americans regularly said, 'A, I don't trust you on the economy, and B, I'm just not feeling what you're telling me I should be feeling.' That's the mix of sentiment. I'm interested in the note that the president ends up sounding on this because when it comes to being able to, we'll say, empathize or at least acknowledge a viewpoint that cuts against his own political well-being. He's never really able to do that. And so, will this be an issue where advisers prevail? I guess we'll see. Meanwhile, in Washington, tensions are rising inside the White House over Homeland Security Secretary Christy Gnome. Sources tell me, Jake, and our colleagues here at MS Now that top officials, led by Deputy Chief of Staff Steven Miller, are frustrated with Gnome's pace on expanding immigration detention facilities, as well as her handling of FEMA disaster funds. President Trump is now weighing whether to replace her as early as January, according to current and former officials who tell us that that's on the table, though no final decision has yet been made. The White House calling our reporting total fake news, insisting Gnome is doing a great job. However, there is talk about outgoing Virginia Governor Glenn Yncan possibly succeeding Gnome. Yncan recently met with DHS and Border Protection officials as well as acting ICE director Todd Lions according to two former DHS officials from the Trump and Biden administrations. DHS declined to comment and Yncan's office hasn't responded. But Jake, you were one of the reporters along with me, our colleagues uh at MS Now who pushed this reporting forward. It does feel like the year mark was always going to be an inflection point, administration officials leaving or being pushed out. Is that just one of the instances that we're seeing here? And what else might this portend for administration officials who have either drawn Trump's eye or just the frustration of other people within Trump world and the administration orbit?"
"Yeah, I mean I I will say this in particular I I believe is a bit of an isolated event where every conversation I had with the White House officials on this said this has been coming for a long a long time. When you have governors frustrated, when you have the president himself frustrated, when you have Steven Miller, basically chief of policy for the White House frustrated, this is something that they just kept saying is sort of inevitable. Whether it happens at the beginning of the year or a little bit more down the road is maybe up to antics, but it's going to happen eventually. I I did ask a lot of these officials that we talked to about this story. Is this an indicator for more? I would say that their general response was don't view this as the going to be the case for every other single thing. But there are continued and increasing rumors around some of these individuals that Trump is growing increasingly frustrated with. And I'll note too that the whole Trump 2.0 loyalty over anything was really the center point of how people were picked and selected to be in these roles. And I think it's just interesting that here we are a year in, we're starting to see some of these phrase happen. I think Gnome will likely be an example for others, but I've been told by some White House officials to not necessarily insinuate that this is going to be reflective of all the other ones, but likely some are to come."
"The next question that it begs, frankly, is what happens when you have to do another round of confirmation battles for these folks cuz the first ones were so bruising and lawmakers are only more motivated now definitely not to cross party lines. I mean, I think that the confirmation hearings we saw earlier in the year, you know, Democrats voting for Rubio, a former colleague, for example, like I think that is just out the window. I wonder if the White House is aware of that."
"Um, it's a question that I know you'll ask in the coming days. MS Now White House reporter Jake Trailer, as always, thank you for coming on."