NEWS: Senate Republicans Block Passage of Sen. Schiff’s Legislation Requiring Release of ‘Second Strike’ Video

Washington, D.C. - Today, Senate Republicans blocked U.S. Senator Adam Schiff's (D-Calif.) attempt to pass legislation that would require the Trump administration to release the video of the strikes on boats in the Caribbean conducted September 2nd to both Congress and the American public.

Schiff went to the Senate floor to force consideration of the legislation, but Republicans blocked this effort to compel transparency.

Watch the full clip HERE. Download the clip HERE.

"In the strikes since - strikes that have killed nearly 100 people in the last few months - the attacks have been announced to the world by the President and the Secretary of Defense posting videos of them on their social media. And last week, we saw the administration distribute lengthy footage of the seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. So, why not release the video of the second strike that the administration ordered on September 2nd?" said Senator Schiff on the Senate Floor.

Background: Senators Kaine, Paul, Schumer, and Schiff filed a War Powers resolution to block military action against Venezuela after President Trump said that military operations targeting Venezuelan land targets would begin "very soon."

Schiff, Kaine, and Paul previously introduced a bipartisan resolution to prevent the use of military force within or against Venezuela, but it fell short of passage by just two votes.

Schiff and Kaine also introduced a similar measure focused on repeated strikes in the southern Caribbean Sea that the Trump administration has carried out without congressional authorization, killing dozens of unknown individuals. The legislation was blocked by a majority of Senate Republicans.

Full text of the legislation is available here.

Read the full transcript of his remarks as delivered below:

In a moment, I am going to ask this body to pass legislation requiring the Department of Defense to show Congress, and the American people, the September 2nd video of strikes that killed two survivors on a shipwrecked vessel, after the administration's first strike disabled the craft.

The American people deserve to see this video and to witness what is being done in their name. The administration has proudly published the footage of countless other strikes, including the first one from the very same day, believing it could do so without compromising any sources or methods used by our military or intelligence services. This follow up footage should be no different.

Since the beginning of this campaign of unauthorized strikes against boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, there has been one key feature from this administration - an eagerness to push out the videos of these attacks.

We first learned about these strikes when video of an attack was published by the President of the United States, who posted the video of it on his social media. That was video of the first strike on September 2nd.

And in the strikes since - strikes that have killed nearly 100 people in the last few months - the attacks have been announced to the world by the President and the Secretary of Defense posting videos of them on their social media.

And last week, we saw the administration distribute lengthy footage of the seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. So, why not release the video of the second strike that the administration ordered on September 2nd?

Why is the administration hiding it behind closed doors, sharing it with only a small handful of members and leaving the rest of Congress and the country in the dark? What is it about the killing of these two survivors that the administration is unwilling to let the people see?

The legality of the entire campaign of striking these boats and killing those on board - rather than interdicting and arresting them - has been called into serious question. An attack on shipwrecked sailors is expressly prohibited by the laws of war. The rationale for hiding this video seems far less about any nebulous claim of the need to protect sources or methods, and far more about protecting the administration from the accountability and oversight that the American people demand.

This legislation is simple. Make this video available. First - in full and without edits to all Members of Congress.

And then, if there is any legitimate basis to be concerned with the revelation of some source, method, modus operandi or technology that isn't already apparent with the eager release of all the other videos, make it public with proper redaction.

Surely the same people who have helped scrub and declassify every other video the Pentagon has publicly posted can be enlisted to do the same for this one.

Or is the so-called "most transparent administration in history" afraid of what this video would show?

Would it show a clear violation of the laws of war, which use the killing of shipwrecked combatants as the textbook definition of an illegal use of force?

The truth on this is going to come out. We know it will. Let it be now.

We already know from the reports of our colleagues who have seen the video what it shows. A first strike on a boat. Then, a short while later, a second strike on the disabled wreckage of the boat and two survivors, killing them.

Now, I should make clear: none of these strikes is lawful because the targets are not combatants, there is no imminent threat of invasion, and there is no legal authorization in the U.S. or international law for the use of military force for drug interdiction alone.

We have condemned campaigns of extrajudicial killings in other countries that have done so to allegedly combat the drug trade - like the Philippines under Duterte - and we must not engage in that conduct here.

But the second strike on September 2 attack compounds the illegality. It flies directly in the face of the laws and values that underpin the U.S. military.

So, I ask my colleagues to support this bill. Allow this legislation to pass and ensure that we are not hiding information from the American people.

After all - the President of the United States said he was fine with releasing this footage. "Whatever they have," he said, "We'd certainly release. No problem."

It's time that we hold the president to his promise to be transparent with American people. Our servicemembers and their families deserve nothing less. Right now, we have a massive military force in the region. We have killed almost a hundred people.

We are beginning a blockade of a country with which we are not at war, and with which the American people do not want us to go to war. Not over regime change, as despicable as the Maduro regimes is, the American people do not want to go to war over regime change - which is apparently the real objective here.

We should pass a war powers resolution to make it clear that Congress does not support a military campaign that may draw us into another endless war or destabilize the region. And we can start by releasing the video of one deadly strike already undertaken, but the evidence of which has been withheld from the American people. I urge passage of this bill.

And so, as if in legislative session and notwithstanding Rule 22, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of the bill at the desk to require the release of video strikes conducted on September 2, 2025, against designated terrorist organizations in the area of responsibility of the U.S. Southern Command, that the bill be considered read three times and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

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