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Where Things Stand

• Boat strike: Representative Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, accused the Pentagon of concealing video of a strike that killed two survivors of an attack on a vessel in the Caribbean because it is “very, very difficult to justify.” Mr. Smith told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s suggestion that releasing the video could “compromise sources and methods” rang hollow after videos of other strikes had been made public. “It seems pretty clear they don’t want to release this video because they don’t want people to see it,” Mr. Smith said. Read more ›

• Kennedy Center: Mr. Trump is scheduled to become the first president to host the Kennedy Center honors on Sunday night. Mr. Trump has largely taken over the institution, installing himself as chairman and personally approving the honorees. Read more ›

• Bessent’s holdings: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that he divested from his holdings of thousands of acres of North Dakota soybean farmland to comply with his federal ethics agreement. He drew criticism from ethics watchdogs for being slow to sell the properties, which posed potential conflicts of interest. Read more ›

Trump blasts a Democrat lawmaker for not switching parties after receiving a pardon.

President Trump on Sunday upbraided Representative Henry Cuellar, Democrat of Texas, for not switching parties in his re-election bid after Mr. Trump pardoned him and his wife on bribery charges last week, saying Mr. Cuellar’s decision displayed a “lack of LOYALTY.”

Mr. Cuellar was indicted by a federal grand jury last year on charges that he and his wife had accepted roughly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijani oil company and a Mexican bank in exchange for promises that he would use his position in ways that would benefit Azerbaijan and the bank.

In a break from precedent, President Trump takes a starring role at the Kennedy Center Honors.

President Trump is slated to host the Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday night in an event that will pay tribute to the actors Sylvester Stallone and Michael Crawford, the singers Gloria Gaynor and George Strait, and the band Kiss.

While past presidents have typically watched from a designated box in the opera house of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Mr. Trump will be the first president to host the event, putting his administration’s cultural takeover of Washington and its institutions on vivid display.

Democrats call for releasing classified video of deadly boat attacks.

Top Democrats called on Sunday for the release of classified video of the U.S. military’s first operation targeting a boat in the Caribbean in early September, an attack that has faced heavy scrutiny in part for its follow-up strike that killed two survivors.

Democrats and Republicans have offered starkly different descriptions of the video, which was seen by some members of Congress but has not been made public. Representative Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said it was “simply not accurate” that the video of the Sept. 2 strike on the boat carrying 11 individuals showed the survivors trying to flip a capsized boat, rescue its cargo, and continue trafficking drugs, as Republicans in Congress have maintained.

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has not committed to releasing the full video of a strike that killed two survivors of an attack on a vessel in the Caribbean.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times

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