Analyst flags 'most telling' sign that Trump admin is hiding something about boat strikes

CNN anchor Abby Phillip on Wednesday flagged what she described as "the most telling sign" that President Donald Trump's administration is trying to hide something about the strikes it conducted against alleged drug boats.

Phillip opened her nightly show, "NewsNight," with a montage of shifting claims made by administration officials about the boat strikes. She said the comments made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio were the "most telling" because they showed the administration knows it needs to stick to a pre-determined narrative about the event.

She played a clip of Rubio telling reporters that one boat the administration struck in September was "probably headed to Trinidad or some other country in the Caribbean." A few months later, Rubio told another group of reporters that the same boat was traveling to the United States.

"That very firstclip that we played of Marco Rubio, where he said initiallythat it was not going to the United States, it was going toTrinidad or some other country, and then he corrected himselfto get in line with whatthe administration was saying," Phillip pointed out. "That's the mosttelling to me, that they knowthat they need to have aparticular narrative about this."

The video also highlights other contradictions in the Trump administration's explanation about the boat strikes. For instance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed during Tuesday's cabinet meeting that he did not "stick around long enough" to see if there were any survivors from the September 2 attack. That statement seemed to contradict a previous claim he made about seeing the entirety of the attack live on television.

To date, the administration has conducted more than 20 strikes against alleged drug boats, killing more than 80 people, according to reports.