By Vanguard Staff
NEW YORK — A new national poll released by the American Civil Liberties Union shows broad and bipartisan public support for greater transparency and congressional accountability surrounding U.S. military strikes on civilian boats accused of carrying drugs, with large majorities saying the government should release unedited video footage and legal justifications for the strikes .
The ACLU/YouGov poll, conducted Dec. 17–19, 2025, surveyed 1,016 registered voters nationwide and carries a margin of error of approximately 3.7 percent. It comes as scrutiny intensifies over the Trump administration’s use of lethal force against civilian vessels in international waters near Venezuela. As of Jan. 2, 2026, the administration and the U.S. military have publicly disclosed 35 strikes, which the ACLU says have killed at least 114 people.
According to the survey, 84 percent of voters agreed with the statement that Americans have a right to know more about their government and that the full, unedited videos of the strikes should be released. Sixteen percent said the government should keep the videos secret. Support for transparency cut across party lines, reflecting broad unease with secrecy surrounding the strikes.
The poll also found widespread skepticism that the administration has met its burden of publicly justifying the use of lethal force. Sixty-nine percent of respondents said the Trump administration has not yet clearly shown evidence to the public justifying the strikes on boats it claims were engaged in drug trafficking. Only 31 percent said the administration had clearly shown such evidence.
Opposition to the strikes themselves was also significant. A majority of voters said they disapprove of the use of missile strikes on civilian boats in international waters. When respondents were asked to compare approaches, 67 percent said they support having the U.S. Coast Guard seize and arrest people on boats suspected of drug smuggling and put them on trial, while 33 percent supported having the U.S. military conduct missile strikes on boats suspected of criminal activity.
Those views were held strongly by many respondents. Among voters who preferred arrest and prosecution over missile strikes, a majority said they held that position strongly rather than weakly, indicating firm opposition to the use of lethal military force in these circumstances.
The survey also examined public opinion on specific transparency measures. Fifty-eight percent of respondents said the Trump administration should “definitely” release its legal justification for the strikes on civilian boats, while another 25 percent said it should “probably” do so. Only a small minority said the justification should probably or definitely not be released, while the remainder said they did not know. Support for releasing the legal justification included overwhelming majorities of Democrats, as well as substantial majorities of independents and Republicans.
Similar patterns emerged around the release of unedited video footage. Sixty-three percent of voters said they support the U.S. government releasing the unedited videos of the strikes, including footage from a Sept. 2, 2025, incident in which a boat was struck twice and survivors of the initial strike were allegedly killed in a second attack. Roughly one-quarter of respondents neither supported nor opposed releasing the footage, while a relatively small share opposed disclosure outright.
Congressional oversight also received majority support. Fifty-eight percent of voters said they support Congress holding public hearings with top government officials responsible for the boat strikes. Support for hearings was strongest among Democrats but also included a majority of independents and nearly one-third of Republicans. A smaller share of respondents opposed holding hearings, while others said they neither supported nor opposed the idea.
“Our polling makes clear that an overwhelming number of Americans on both sides of the aisle want Congress to step up and hold the Trump administration publicly accountable for its illegal strikes on civilian boats in the Caribbean,” said Christopher Anders, director of the ACLU’s Democracy and Technology Division. “This means open hearings with the officials responsible for these murders, as well as releasing both the legal justification and unedited videos of the strikes. Given the life-or-death stakes of the president’s use of force, it’s imperative that this transparency and accountability comes immediately.”
The poll also probed how voters morally characterize the strikes. About half of respondents, 51 percent, said they either strongly or somewhat agree that using missile strikes on small boats off the coast of Venezuela that might be carrying drugs constitutes murder. That figure rose when respondents were asked about a second missile strike on defenseless survivors of an initial attack. Significant portions of the public also expressed concern that senior officials who planned or ordered the strikes might escape responsibility while lower-ranking service members face blame or punishment.
At the same time, fewer respondents agreed with statements suggesting that the people on the boats posed such a threat to Americans that they could only be stopped through lethal military action, indicating that claims of necessity have not persuaded large segments of the public.
The polling results come amid ongoing litigation seeking greater disclosure. The ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the New York Civil Liberties Union have filed a lawsuit seeking the public release of the Trump administration’s legal justification for the strikes. The groups argue that the administration has carried out lethal military actions without providing sufficient evidence, legal rationale or public accountability.
The YouGov survey was conducted online and weighted to be representative of registered voters based on gender, age, race and ethnicity, education, region, and voting history. The ACLU said the results demonstrate a clear public appetite for transparency, due process and congressional oversight when the executive branch uses lethal force outside traditional war zones.
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