GOP Sen. Tom Cotton has no objections to releasing the full video of the U.S. military strike on a drug boat that has become central to Democratic claims of war crimes committed by the Trump administration.

The Arkansas senator appeared on NBC News’ “Meet The Press” on Sunday and defended the actions taken by the U.S. military to curb the flow of fentanyl and other drugs into the United States, specifically striking vehicles used to ferry drugs in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean.

One incident in September has sparked accusations from Democrats that War Secretary Pete Hegseth committed a war crime after a second military strike was ordered on a drug boat that was not destroyed by an initial missile.

The accusations against Hegseth began after The Washington Post reported that the War secretary gave an order to “kill them all.” Top military officials have since testified to Congress that no such order was given, and Republican lawmakers who have seen the mission order have said that no such language exists in the order that would direct military personnel to commit war crimes.

Senate Republicans, including Cotton, have also reviewed the footage of the second strike on the drug boat and said that the strike did not constitute a war crime because the vessel, though damaged and capsized, still represented a valid military target and could have been used to call in additional narcoterrorists. Cotton said Sunday that he would have “no problem” releasing the video to the public, though the military may have national security reasons for not wanting the footage public.

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“I personally don’t have any problem with” releasing the footage, Cotton said. “It’s not gruesome. I didn’t find it distressing or disturbing. It looks like any number of dozens of strikes we’ve seen on Jeeps and pickup trucks in the Middle East over the years.”

“I will say that the department may have valid concerns about revealing what we know about tactics and techniques that these cartels are using or about our sources or methods,” he added. “I would trust Secretary Hegseth and his team to make the decision about whether they can declassify and release the video. But again, there’s nothing remarkable on that video in my opinion.”

Adm. Mitch Bradley testified to Congress last week, denying that Hegseth gave a “kill them all” order. Bradley said that while Hegseth was present to watch the first strike delivered against the drug boat in September, the War secretary left to attend to other matters. Bradley gave authorization for the second strike after assessing that the vessel was still a threat.

Hegseth’s orders at that point had not specified what to do if a drug boat was not completely destroyed in an initial strike, according to reporting from The New York Times.

Democrats have continued to push the story, alleging that Hegseth authorized a war crime and should be held accountable. Lawmakers have also pushed for release of the video depicting the second strike on the boat and suggested that service members who take part in illegal orders could be formally punished.

Republicans took a victory lap when Matt Van Epps defeated leftist Democrat Aftyn Behn in Tennessee’s special election this month.

But what, if anything, does Van Epps’s victory mean for Republican prospects as we head into the 2026 midterm elections?

The Daily Wire asked three Republican strategists to share their key takeaways from this race. All three said that Democrats run the risk of killing any momentum they have if they nominate far-left candidates in primaries for competitive seats.

“For all the handwringing about margin of victory, this was nearly a double digit win. Special elections are special for a reason, and Republicans were wise to leave nothing to chance and sprint through the tape,” South & Hill Strategies co-founder Colin Reed said, calling Van Epps the “type of candidate the GOP needs more of.”

“There are some useful lessons looking forward for both parties: for the GOP, the midterm political climate remains challenging, as it always does for the party in charge, and for the Democrats, they need to nominate less extreme candidates if they want to compete beyond the deep blue bastions of America,” he said.

“That’s a challenge for them because the far Left is where all the energy and enthusiasm resides.”

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The results of the 2026 midterms will shape the final two years of President Donald Trump’s time in the White House. Currently, there are 220 Republicans and 213 Democrats in the House of Representatives, with two seats that are vacant. The magic number for a majority is 218, which both parties are vying for both on the campaign trail and in mid-decade redistricting battles.

Van Epps won with roughly 54% of the vote, leaving Behn with just over 45%. In 2024, Rep. Mark Green, who resigned earlier this year, won the seat with 59.5% of the vote, with President Donald Trump also winning heavily. Van Epps was sworn in on Thursday.

The race led to surrogates campaigning left and right, from President Donald Trump phoning into a rally with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), to former Vice Presidents Kamala Harris and Al Gore hoping to rally the troops for Behn.

Despite her loss, Behn expressed confidence about the margin by which she lost, as she ran her campaign largely on affordability, but faced a wave of scrutiny for her past far-left comments on abolishing prisons, law enforcement, and abortion.

“Tonight, we did something everyone counted out. We proved to a nation that states like Tennessee are still worth fighting for,” Behn posted to X on Tuesday. “The margin was close, and that can only be attributed to the thousands of volunteers who showed out. This is just the beginning.”

Chris Burger, founder and CEO of the Tennessee-based Rotunda Public Affairs, said that “voters weren’t buying what she’s selling.” Burger pointed out how the Democrat was in a primary with three others: Darden Copeland and state Reps. Bo Mitchell and Vincent Dixie.

“This is what happens when you have four people in a Democratic primary, and they elect by a pretty close margin, the most extreme left-wing person in the race, and then all the far-left activists and the national media complex come together,” he added.

“They put all their attention and money into it, and they threw the kitchen sink at it. And you know, Aftyn’s a far-left socialist and she does not represent the Seventh District or Tennessee values at large,” he said.

A third GOP operative, who spoke with The Daily Wire on background, said that they are “very encouraged” by Tuesday night’s results, and said that “a nine-point margin is really strong compared to what we’re seeing in other elections this cycle.”

However, the operative cautioned that special elections are just that — special — and that turnout likely looks very different from that during a standard election. The operative also pointed out the major messaging pivot by Democrats between the start of the year and now, which went from focusing highly on Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency to discussing the cost-of-living.

“Affordability, they call it, was a con job by the Democrats,” Trump said during his cabinet meeting earlier this week, as he often blames Democrats and the Biden administration for policies that triggered high inflation.

Burger said that the affordability argument from Democrats like Behn falls flat on its merits when people consider the “policy objective” the candidates are campaigning for.

“If you look at what the Democrats want to do: government involvement. And government involvement typically always drives the price up.