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Report: Video Undercuts Pentagon Rational for Strike - The Beat with Ari Melber | Wave AI Podcast Notes

Report: Video Undercuts Pentagon Rational for Strike

Sat Dec 06 2025

Trump Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing war crime allegations. MS NOW's Ari Melber reports on new details and video from the September strikes on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean.

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Beat with Ari Melber

Episode: Report: Video Undercuts Pentagon Rational for Strike
Date: December 6, 2025

Overview

This episode dives into the escalating controversy surrounding a U.S. military strike under the Trump administration, raising serious questions of war crimes. Ari Melber details how new video evidence undermines the Pentagon’s rationale for the attack, focuses on the lack of transparency and accountability, and discusses the broader implications of government secrecy. Later, the episode covers a major Netflix-Warner Bros. Discovery deal and its intersection with Trump-era media power, as well as ongoing fallout from January 6 cases. Guests Paul Rykoff and Bill Kristol provide expert commentary on the Pentagon scandal and its wider repercussions.

Key Segments & Discussion Points

1. The Military Strike: New Video Evidence Raises War Crime Concerns

[00:45 – 12:38]

Context:
The controversy centers on a U.S. military strike against a boat in the Caribbean on September 2nd, resulting in the deaths of shipwreck survivors under dubious legal circumstances. Video evidence, partly seen by lawmakers and reported by The New York Times, directly contradicts the Pentagon’s official narrative about the threat posed.
Transparency & Bipartisan Pressure:
Melber emphasizes rare bipartisan momentum for oversight, underlining that transparency has forced some information into the public, but also highlighting the government’s selective release of key evidence.

“There are clouds clearly getting gathering around Pentagon Chief Hegseth and we are getting the new details… There’s a problem here and most people see that the government has a problem. But there's also transparency, accountability and even bipartisan pressure at work...”
— Ari Melber (00:45)
Key Findings from the Video:
- Survivors were seen on the overturned hull, waving in a manner interpreted as surrender or appeal for rescue, not aggression.
- The Pentagon narrative claimed survivors were communicating as a threat; however, reporting shows no radio or functioning signaling was available.
- Lawmakers describe the survivors as “clinging to a tiny non awash portion of the keel,” not in a position to pose a threat.
“There was no boat, there was wreckage... two guys clinging to a tiny non awash portion of the keel of a capsized boat.”
— Melber quoting a lawmaker (05:39)
Obstruction & Secrecy:
- The Trump administration is withholding video of the “second strike,” while often releasing such videos as proof of military might, suggesting potential cover-up.
- Trump’s public statements on releasing the video mirror past evasions around controversial subjects.
“Every day that it goes by and it’s not out, that buck stops at the President’s desk where his secrecy problem stretches from his own past dealings...”
— Ari Melber (08:18)
Legal and Ethical Analysis:
Military legal scholars question the Pentagon's justifications, noting the strike does not meet the established legal standards for wartime action, especially as Congress has not declared a war on drug traffickers.

2. Analysis & Expert Perspectives: Paul Rykoff & Bill Kristol

[12:38 – 22:28]

Accountability and Loss of Trust:
Rykoff argues that Pentagon Chief Hegseth must step down immediately, citing incompetence and risk to national security.

“He shouldn’t be the Secretary of Defense for another hour... you can’t trust the Secretary of Defense. And we have a right to see the entire videotape. We need total transparency around this, but we also have to have confidence in the man who's leading the entire military.”
— Paul Rykoff (13:21)
The Issue of Selective Transparency:
Kristol points out the hypocrisy in releasing parts of the video for PR while obscuring evidence that could indicate wrongdoing.

“They released half the first part of the video. They released it the next day. Hegseth played it on Fox News... What is the rationale for releasing some of the video and not the rest? ...Except there’s something they don’t want us to see.”
— Bill Kristol (14:23)
Chain of Command and Absurd Defenses:
Both guests are incredulous at reports that Hegseth left the operations room midway through the strike, calling it “ludicrous” and suggesting it reflects an unserious, performative culture unfit for military leadership.

“The notion that he's like, oh, I didn't know what was going on for an hour or two is liter... people are in instant contact, let alone at the level of being secretary of Defense.”
— Bill Kristol (19:27)
Memes and Public Relations as Distraction:
The group criticizes Hegseth and his allies for treating the war crimes probe as meme fodder and performance art, undermining the gravity of the situation.

“This is laughable, disrespectful, and most of all, dishonorable to post. This kind of stuff is beneath the United States and beneath the secretary of defense, and it's absolutely unacceptable.”
— Paul Rykoff (21:47)

3. Major Netflix-Warner Bros Discovery Deal & Trump-Era Media Power

[24:46 – 35:41]

Deal Overview:
Netflix announces plans to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (including HBO but excluding CNN, TNT, TBS), a merger valued at approximately $83 billion.
- Antitrust scrutiny is anticipated, but there are concerns it could be obstructed less for competition and more due to political favoritism for Paramount and its Trump-connected owners.
“Under the Trump administration, there are big questions about whether they are misusing those powers to punish and reward... Many see this administration as the most anti First Amendment administration in many decades.”
— Ari Melber (24:46)
Media & Democracy Risks:
Vanity Fair’s Aidan McLaughlin explains how this move, and others like it, raise chilling questions about government interference in free markets and media.

“We’ve seen during the Trump administration this sort of mafioso tendency to pick winners and losers in the private sector, which is pretty much unprecedented... and does, as you note, more closely resemble regimes around the world that we wouldn’t necessarily call democracies.”
— Aidan McLaughlin (30:30)

4. January 6th News and DOJ Actions

[36:06 – 39:29]

New Developments:
Authorities arrest and charge Brian Cole Jr. for planting pipe bombs near party headquarters on January 5-6, 2021. Cole has confessed and reportedly motivated by Trump’s conspiracies about the 2020 election.
Lingering Hypocrisy:
Melber highlights the tension of the DOJ prosecuting new cases even as Trump has pardoned and rewarded dozens of other January 6 convicts.

“Donald Trump... used his powers to free people who attacked police, who committed sedition, who were part of the largest full scale attack on our Congress and democracy in modern history, who committed what Republican leader McConnell called an insurrection.”
— Ari Melber (38:36)

5. Culture & Media: South Park Satirizes Pete Hegseth; Diddy Docuseries

[39:29 – 45:02]

South Park Satire:
South Park parodies Hegseth as an attention-seeking, content-obsessed official more interested in social media than national security, reinforcing concerns about his unfitness for high office.

“Hey, what's up, guys? This is Pete Hexth, the Department of War. We're here to infiltrate this police station and extract a poi. Cause that's what we do. That's what Homeland Security does. Be sure to like and subscribe...”
— South Park, as relayed by Melber (41:06)
Diddy Docuseries:
Brief coverage of the new Netflix docuseries on Sean “Diddy” Combs, its chart-topping debut and exploration of issues ranging from abuse and misogyny to hip hop culture’s reckoning with violence.

Selected Quotes & Timestamps

On government accountability:

“And anybody who sees that video would have real questions about whether the United States is abiding by the values that distinguish us around the world.”
— Ari Melber (06:23)
On selective evidence release:

“They haven’t been claiming that operational security is at risk here... So let’s open the kimono... let’s see the entire thing.”
— Paul Rykoff (16:44)
On performative military leadership:

“You just can’t believe this person is Secretary of Defense... Nothing juvenile and as you say, childishly performative like this.”
— Bill Kristol (19:27)
On media consolidation and democracy:

“Monopolies in the real world tend to be bad for democracy and business... unless you happen to be the lucky owner of the monopoly, most other people who believe in capitalism find that to be bad.”
— Ari Melber (32:22)

Notable Moments

The bipartisan outrage over the Pentagon’s conduct and secrecy.
Rykoff’s blunt call for the Secretary of Defense to step down immediately.
Kristol’s sharp critique of selective transparency and insistence, “Except there’s something they don’t want us to know.”
South Park’s skewering of Hegseth, highlighting the absurdity of meme culture in military leadership.
Detailed discussion on the Netflix mega-deal and how Trump’s preferences might shape its regulatory fate, raising First Amendment alarms.

Conclusion

This episode of The Beat unmasks a deepening government crisis over military transparency and accountability, set against a background of renewed media consolidation and persistent threats to democracy. Ari Melber and his guests cut through official spin to raise pointed questions about law, ethics, and the true meaning of “oversight” in an era of performative politics and unprecedented executive power.

Loading summary...

Transcript

Ari Melber (0:00)

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Ari Melber (0:45)

Welcome to the Beat. I'm Ari Melber. We begin with something that began serious, involves a tragedy, and now is a full blown catastrophe on multiple levels for the Trump administration and also the United States Pentagon. There are clouds clearly getting gathering around Pentagon Chief Hegseth and we are getting the new details, which is partly a bad thing. There's a problem here and most people see that the government has a problem. But there's also transparency, accountability and even bipartisan pressure at work, something that Donald Trump on his worst autocratic days has tried to argue, claim or pretend doesn't happen anymore, that he could be, as some of the protesters say, a king, not subject to oversight. And yet here we are dealing with matters of life and death and war and the oversight is in a way working. Because we're learning things doesn't mean we're in the clear. I'm not telling you this is all fixed and some of the lives lost are lost for good. But that brings me to how we are basically ending this week with some chilling new details about the deadly strike that, according to legal experts and many veterans who work in this space, appears on its face from the video evidence to constitute a war crime committed by the United States under the Trump administration. There are serious questions about the two shipwrecked survivors of what was that first attack and whether once they were survivors. Right, that's the term of art in law and combat. We've all heard about having survivors of war and having detainees. If you think back and you're not a legal expert, why do we have so many discussions about detainees even in the greatest wars, the World War II or the so called war on terrorists, where we were told these terrorists were terrible and they were, but if they were caught alive, we followed the rules, the Geneva Conventions. You can think of examples where we didn't. And those were multi year scandals. But in general, we have detainees, we have survivors of war, enemy combatants and the rest because we don't execute everyone. I say that as the baseline to remind you why this is such a big deal. The September 2nd attack involved on video the apparent killing or execution of those shipwreck survivors. Now we're getting more reporting about the video evidence. The New York Times, this came late today, says a new detail about the survivors of a US Military strike on a boat in the Caribbean further complicates the military's explanations for launching that quote, follow up attack that killed them. That is of course, the strike that is sometimes proverbially referred to this week as the second strike. Quote, multiple people who've seen video of the attacks say the survivors climbed on the overturned hole and waved to something overhead, a gesture interpreted as an attempt to surrender, beckoning, rescue or trying to signal other alleged drug traffickers. You can see there the debate about what the signal meant and whether they were a threat or not. Now the Times reports some who viewed the video said the most logical explanation was that the two survivors had seen the American aircraft above them and started signaling for a rescue. It's not clear from the video what the survivors had definitely seen the American aircraft, whether or not they had all of this adding to the accounts from lawmakers who of course are putting on this bipartisan pressure, which is why so quickly some information, video and testimony has come out. They were able to view what the United States military under the Trump administration is still not releasing the video of the second attack. And they said the survivors, according to some lawmakers, appeared to be trying to flip the remnants of their boat. One lawmaker recounting there was no boat, there was wreckage. Again, by the way, I'll leave this quote up, but that's why we've heard this described by some credible sources as shipwreck survivors. Not exactly people running a functioning vessel at that point. Continuing the quote, there was no radio. There were two guys clinging to a tiny non awash portion of the keel of a capsized boat. It would be important if there was no radio or international signaling process, right. Audio or I guess perhaps something else in the water. But if there's no radio and no signaling, then well, that's going to affect what they were able to do. And the argument or explanation that some around the Pentagon have offered that maybe they were still communicating and thus some type of Threat. There was this classified briefing from Admiral Bradley who oversaw these strikes under Pentagon chief Hagseth. Again, reading from the reporting of the New York Times journalists, quote, amid preparations for the briefing, U.S. officials told the Times they had been told one of the survivors had radioed for help. But the people said remarks from Admiral Bradley about communications were instead purely speculative. The reason for the disconnect was not clear. You'll notice that word from the Times, disconnect. That is diplomatic and as I've reported and serious people have mentioned, this is a process story. This is not a story where you know everything that happened. But if disconnect turns into cover up or lies about an alleged war crime, well, the Trump administration's problems are going to increase, not decrease. There is bipartisan pressure, but they're also, as some of the material has started coming out, a split. We've often seen that in congressional politics. Some of the Democrats say it's very clear what they saw on video.

Ari Melber (7:54)

We'll release the Epstein files, except they've been in his control the whole time and he hasn't released them. You go back to the first term, I have no problem talking to Bob Mueller, but he never did. Donald Trump is, if nothing else, very good at keeping an eye on the PR and the headlines he wants. And while I think some of the press has wised up over time and certainly some of the public, if you look at the reaction to Donald Trump's misleading statements about high inflation or prices, just to pick a very different issue, plenty of the public has wised up to this, what he's seeking. But you won't see on our headline right now. You see we're talking about Pentagon chief Hegseth under fire. But he is just as a political and public relations matter, according to the past evidence, he's seeking headlines that say he's fine with the release, just like he got headlines about being fine with Tahek and to Mueller. Well, the buck stops with the leadership, in this case the Pentagon chief and the President. And if they want the video out, it should be out. And every day that it goes by and it's not out, that buck stops at the President's desk where his secrecy problem stretches from his own past dealings with Epstein, which has a looming deadline this month, of course, to whatever his administration's currently doing with Epstein's co conspirator, giving her lenient treatment, whatever's going on in this video and a heck of a lot of other stuff, crypto corruption, allegations about deals they've cut relating to war and Russia. There's a lot of secrecy and that makes you wonder what are they hiding? And in our skeptical Internet era, a heck of a lot more people, including on the center and the center, right. Maybe not pure loyal maga, but a heck of a lot more people are not naturally just trusting the government, telling them on any of the issues I just mentioned, including this strike. Trust us, you don't need to see the evidence with your own eyes. Here's what one military lawyer said. It's hard to see any argument that the follow up strike was lawful unless one accepts a series of premises that the US is in a war with drug traffickers. That's that claimed wartime power. I mentioned earlier that Congress hasn't declared, quote, a broad array of legal analysts dispute the idea that we would just be in a endless actual drug war. Second that the two survivors were on board a seaworthy vessel and not at risk of drowning, that the drugs in the boat itself were military objects. Stack that all up and you have something more like a law school exam, hypothetical, something much closer to that than the actual legal justification for some of what you see on your screen. Now the Pentagon continues to carry out strikes. They did a new one late Thursday night. The total number of these strikes is over 20 estimated and they have killed 86 people. Remember, a whole bunch of people are getting killed by this process, which we now see is at a minimum convoluted and at a maximum a potential war crime. That's the state of play with a heck of a lot of secrecy. And the Pentagon chief under fire to a degree that Donald Trump who used to fire people for fake on tv his fake firing his apprentice show, but lately hasn't shown the ability to to demand any accountability and remove people in his administration despite some of these documented problems. I got two special guests on this one. We're back in 90 seconds.

Bill Kristol (19:27)

I mean, it's. It's terrible. It's embarrassing. It really. If you are. I defer to Paul on this, but if you're a serious person in the military, whether you're an enlisted kid or you're a senior officer, you just can't believe this person is Secretary of Defense. We've had, you know, secretary of defense some of us have liked more than others and, you know, made some big mistakes, some of them, but nothing like this. Nothing juvenile and as you say, childishly performative like this. You know, on this point that Paul made, just for a second on Tegseth going, leaving the meeting, just two quick points about that. You know, what if Secretary of Defense leaves one part of the Pentagon, if he was. And goes to another part, they can track him down. You know, you'll be shocked to know that they have pretty good contact with the Secretary of Defense at all times. They have these things, phones and, you know, other ways of getting in touch. He has a mill aide, several military aides with him at every moment who could be buzzed by, by, by. By Admiral Bradley's military aid and said, hey, we need, we need the secretary for a second to sign off on something or not. So the notion that he's like, oh, I didn't know what was going on for an hour or two is liter. I mean, if you've been in government, I mean, even at much lower levels of government, people are in instant contact, let alone at the level of being secretary of Defense. Incidentally, this was September 2nd. This was their first big strike. They were so proud of it. We know, because they. Hegseth went and touted it, and President himself touted it that night, right? And put the video up. I'm not mistaken. And then Hegseth started again on maybe the next morning on Fox and Friends. He's. You're telling me that he watches part of it and they. But it's a little unclear what's happened. There's fog of war, as Hecksniff calls it. He thinks it's literal fog. But anyway, there's smoke and there's fire and they're not sure exactly, and he just walks out. It's ludicrous. You and I have seen. We've seen video, we've seen photos, right, of people in the Situation Room in the middle of a serious action. They stay there for hours. You want to know what's happened. If you're in Charge. Now, maybe you take a break. You have a super urgent meeting. You got to go talk to a foreign leader for 10 minutes. Of course, you step out of the room, but he just goes off because the schedule he looks at as his scheduler taps him on his shoulder. Or maybe, Bill, you have a meeting at 3pm it's ludicrous.

Ari Melber (24:46)

Turning to some major news that will affect you, what you watch and how you watch it. Whether you like it or not, this is one of the biggest announced planned deals in business, tech or media of the year. You might have seen the phone alerts today because streaming giant Netflix, one of the most capitalized companies in the world, announces it plans to buy Warner Brothers Discovery, the Hollywood studio and huge media company. And hbo Max, what would that cost? Well, you see right here, about $83 billion. Now this is a deal that touches on all sorts of issues. Who controls what, how you get it, media consolidation. It will require approval from the government. Typically that is supposed to be done in a nonpartisan way through regulatory agencies. But does that make me sound naive? Because under the Trump administration, there are big questions about whether they are misusing those powers to punish and reward. Here's how NBC puts it. The deal would lead to a new entertainment and tech behemoth and there was a bidding war. Paramount has been vying for a deal. Paramount is the company you may have heard about with all those clashes about Trump and 60 Minutes and independents and CBS News. Their chief, David Ellison has been very warm towards the Trump administration. He's part of the Ellison family, respected business leaders, but they have their own politics. Larry Ellison has been very clear that he sees himself as an ally of the president in this second term. He's been in and out of the White House and publicly vocal. Now, there was reporting that the Trump relationship was supposed to help the Ellisons at Paramount and that they have done things at CBS that might reflect their views, journalism and politics or as well as helpful actions towards what Trump wants. You probably remember CBS has settled cases. 60 minutes has been under huge pressure. Their executive producer resigned under that pressure and said it was wrong. Trump apparently, according to these reports, prefers the Ellisons. Get it With Paramount. New York Post reporting that Ellison also recently met with Trump officials as well as lawmakers in Washington pushing specifically against the Netflix deal that I'm telling you was just announced today. Now there's reporting that Paramount is not giving up, that they could do what's called a hostile bid. If you remember all your that's Gasparino there scoop as reported. They're looking to launch a hostile bid because they think they can get it. They also have argued publicly and in all kinds of ways that they have the inside track to get Trump approval. Now, I want to make sure we are fully transparent about all of this. You may have heard that we're Ms. Now. We're no longer msnbc, and that's because we've made an unrelated corporate separation from our former parent company, NBC Universal and Comcast. But I want to make sure, you know, the other prospective buyer list, meaning people that wanted to be Netflix today to get all this deal done, included Comcast, which was, as I mentioned, the former parent company of Ms. Now, until we separated. All of this comes amid the wider fact that it's been reported and seen and they admit it, that Donald Trump, his aides, FCC chair, think that the government should control media. That's why many see this administration as the most anti First Amendment administration in many decades. An FCC that literally said they should be able to pull Jimmy Kimmel off the air. And now that is the context for the concern that they might try to scuttle this deal because they want their MAGA allies to win and have more media control. Here's what a top official tells cnbc, which is, by the way, in our new independent company. They view the Netflix deal with heavy skepticism. Another outlet says Trump could stand in the way, get the DOJ to sue. All of this shows that we are in a different climate. And I can tell you both as a journalist and a lawyer, I've covered these issues in media consolidation for years. Usually when you cover these type of issues in the United States, you look at the rules, you look at formulas over whether a company is over consolidated or not. If you want to get really dry, they talk about whether it's vertically integrated. In other words, there's supposed to be a rule book about whether the deal is good for the public interest or not. Now, we cover these stories and it looks a lot more like Russia or Turkey, with respected journalists and serious business analysts all agreeing on one premise. The current government could use or abuse its power. And that's what you have to watch, not whether this is a over consolidated package. Now, there's a reputation here of Trump meddling in all kinds of free press. We know about the lawsuits this year settling the 60 Minutes case, then approving the merger. Colbert's Late show, which airs on cbs, was canceled, and there's been plenty of public debate and speculation over whether that was a problem related to Trump. CBS did cite financial concerns and of course, as mentioned, the infamous, and I would say completely discredited FCC chair Brendan Carr suspended Kimmel's show and openly activate, I should say agitated for he and the government to control free speech. He lost that fight badly when it turned out the public, Disney consumers and shareholders didn't agree. I want to bring in an expert on so many of these issues. Aidan McLaughlin is Washington correspondent with Vanity Fair and a longtime reporter and observer of media. Welcome to the Beat. Thanks, Ari.