STORY: U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday (December 2) that the administration backs the decisions of its commanders amid attacks against alleged Venezuelan drug-smuggling vessels.

Hegseth, speaking at a Cabinet meeting alongside President Donald Trump, said the U.S. has paused strikes because it's hard to find drug boats in the waters now. But strikes against drug traffickers will continue, he said.

Trump said any country trafficking illegal drugs into the United States could be attacked.

"Anybody that's doing that and selling it into our country is subject to attack," Trump told reporters during the cabinet meeting at the White House, after raising the issue of cocaine from Colombia.

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VIDEO SHOWS: SOUNDBITES FROM U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP AND SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PETE HEGSETH DURING CABINET MEETING/

REFILING TO ADD ADDITIONAL SOUNDBITES

EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS PROFANITY IN SHOT #

SHOWS: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 2, 2025)(UNRESTRICTED POOL – Access all)

1. CABINET MEETING IN PROGRESS

2. (SOUNDBITE)(English) U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, PETE HEGSETH, SAYING:

“And then it's getting after going after narco terrorists and designated terrorist organizations in our own hemisphere. As I've said and I'll say again, we've only just begun striking narco boats and putting narco terrorists at the bottom of the ocean because they've been poisoning the American people. And Joe Biden tried to approach it with kid gloves and allowed them to come across the border. Cartels, take over community, 20 million people, hundreds of thousands of Americans poisoned. And President Trump said, 'no, we're taking the gloves off. We're taking the fight to these designated terror organizations.' And that's exactly what we're doing. So we're stopping the drugs, we're striking the boats. We're defeating narco terrorists.”

3. (SOUNDBITE)(English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

“And you may say one thing, that drugs coming in through the sea by sea are down 91%. And I don't know who the 9% is. But down 91% by sea.”

4. (SOUNDBITE)(English) U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, PETE HEGSETH, SAYING:

“We've had a bit of a pause because it's hard to find boats to strike right now, which is the entire point, right. Deterrence has to matter, not arrest, hand over and then do it again. The rinse and repeat approach of previous administrations. This has meant to get after that approach. And I will just end by saying, as President Trump always has our back, we always had the back of our commanders, who are making decisions in difficult situations. And we do in this case, in all these strikes, they're making judgment calls and ensuring that they defend the American people. They've done the right things. We'll keep doing that. And we had their backs. Mr. President. “

5. (SOUNDBITE)(English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

“Good job. Thank you very much.”

6. MEETING IN PROGRESS

7. (SOUNDBITE)(English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

REPORTER ASKING OFF CAMERA: "I wanted to clarify something that you had said on Sunday regarding the boat strikes near Venezuela. You had said that you didn't know if the second strike on that one boat had happened, but you wouldn't have wanted it. Now that your administration has acknowledged that it happened. Do you support that second strike? And, Mr. Secretary, I want to clarify something you had said in an interview back in September, I believe, on Fox News. You said that you would watch that strike live on television. In real time, did you know that there were survivors after the initial strike?"

TRUMP: "Well, look, all I know is this every boat that you see get blown up we saved 25,000 on average lives. 25,000 lives. They've been sending enough of this horrible fentanyl and other things like cocaine and other things. But fentanyl right now is the leader of the pack to kill our entire nation because a little speck on the head of a pin can kill somebody. It's very dangerous stuff. I know so many people with their sons who are drug addicts. They had one little sample and they died. They died. They were they couldn't believe it. As far as the attack is concerned, I didn't, you know, I still haven't gotten a lot of information because I rely on Pete. But to me, it was an attack. It wasn't one strike, two strikes, three strikes. And somebody asked me a question about the second strike. I didn't know about the second strike. I didn't know anything about people. I wasn't involved that I knew they took out a boat. But I would say this. They had a strike, I hear the gentleman that was in charge of that is extraordinary, extraordinary, person. I'll let Pete speak about him, but Pete was satisfied. Pete didn't know about a second attack having to do with two people. And I guess Pete would have to speak to it. I can say this. I want those boats taken out. And if we have to, we'll attack go to land also, just like we attacked by sea and there's very little coming in by sea. I think we've knocked out over 90% of it. There's very little and I understand that."

8. JOURNALISTS LOOKING ON

9. (SOUNDBITE)(English)U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, PETE HEGSETH, SAYING:

"As you would, as any leader would want, you want to own that responsibility. So I said, I'm going to be the one to make the call. After getting all the information and make sure it's the right strike. That was September 2nd. There's a lot of intelligence that goes into building, that case, and understanding that a lot of people are providing information. I watched that first strike live, as you can imagine, the Department of War, we got a lot of things to do. So I didn't stick around for the hour and 2 hours, whatever where all the sensitive site exploitation digitally occurs. So I moved on to my next meeting. A couple of hours later I learned that that commander had made the, which he had the complete authority to do, and by the way, Admiral Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat. He sunk the boat, sunk the boat and eliminated the threat, and he was the right call. We have his back. And the American people are safer because narco terrorists know you can't bring drugs through the water and eventually on land if necessary, to the American people. We will eliminate that threat and we're proud to do it."

REPORTER ASKING OFF CAMERA: "So you didn't see any survivors, to be clear, after the first strike?"

HEGSETH: "I did not personally see survivors, but I stand because the thing was on fire. It was exploded in fire, smoke. You can't see that you got digital. There's this is called the fog of war. This is what you in the press don't understand. You sit in your air-conditioned offices or up on Capitol Hill and you nit pick, you plant fake stories in The Washington Post about 'kill everybody'. Phrases on anonymous sources. Not based in anything, not based in any truth at all. And then you want to throw really irresponsible terms about American heroes, about the judgment that they made, I wrote whole book on this topic. Because what politicians and the press does to war fighters. President Trump has empowered commanders, commanders to do what is necessary, which is dark and difficult things in the dead of night on behalf of the American people. We support them and we will stop the poisoning of the American people."

REPORTER ASKING: "And Mr. Secretary, on the second strike, you said it happened more than an hour after the first. Did I hear correctly?

HEGSETH: I don't know the exact amount of time."

REPORTER: "You had left in the room, which is what you're saying?"

HEGSETH: "I already stated my answer quite clearly."

10. MEETING IN PROGRESS

11. (SOUNDBITE)(English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

"But he (Former U.S. President Joe Biden) also allowed drugs to come in at record numbers and hundreds of thousands of people a year died. And we're taking those sons of bitches out."

12. MEETING IN PROGRESS

13. (SOUNDBITE)(English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

REPORTER ASKING QUESTION ON OTHER COUNTRIES

TRUMP: "You know, if they come in through a certain country or any country or if we think they're building mills for, whether it's fentanyl or cocaine, coke, I hear Colombia, the country of Colombia is making cocaine. They have cocaine manufacturing plants. Okay. And then they sell us their cocaine. We appreciate that very much. But yeah, anybody that's doing that and selling it into our country is subject to attack."

REPORTER ASKING OFF CAMERA: "So not necessarily just Venezuela?"

TRUMP: "No, not just Venezuela, nope. Venezuela has been very bad. Venezuela has been really bad in something else and probably worse than most but a lot of other people do it too."

14. MEETING IN PROGRESS