Sen Warner slams Trump for excluding Democrats from briefings on boat strikes
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Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, criticized the Trump administration for holding briefings only with Republican lawmakers about alleged U.S. military strikes targeting drug boats in the Caribbean.
Warner called the move to exclude Democrats from national security briefings “indefensible and dangerous.”
“Keeping Democrats away from briefings on U.S. military strikes and hiding the legal justifications for those strikes from half the Senate is indefensible and dangerous,” the senator said in a statement. he said. “Decisions regarding the use of American military force are not campaign strategy sessions, and they are not the private property of a political party.”
“For any administration to treat them in this manner would erode our national security and run afoul of Congress’s constitutional obligation to oversee matters of war and peace,” he continued.
HEGSETH SAID THAT THE ARMY MADE A NEW ATTACK ON THE BOAT ALLEGED TO BE A NARCO TERRORISM
Senator Mark Warner criticized the Trump administration for excluding Democrats from briefings on US military strikes on alleged drug boats. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Warner said the partisan “flare” was a “slap in the face” to the responsibilities of Congress’s war powers and to the men and women in uniform. He also stressed that it set a “reckless and deeply troubling precedent”.
Reports indicate that the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) presented a legal opinion justifying the strikes that Democrats have called for in recent weeks.
“As Secretary Rubio promised me in an in-person meeting on Capitol Hill last week, the administration must immediately provide Democrats with the same briefing and OLC opinion justifying these strikes,” Warner said in a statement. he said. “Americans deserve a government that fulfills its constitutional duties and treats decisions regarding the use of military force with the seriousness they demand.”
Responding to Warner’s criticism, the Pentagon claimed that “appropriate” committees were notified of the strikes.
“The War Department has repeatedly briefed relevant judiciary committees, including the Senate Intelligence committee, throughout operations targeting narco-terrorists,” Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said in a statement. “These things have happened on a bipartisan basis and will continue to do so.”
SENATORS WANT TO PREVENT TRUMP FROM ENTERING “HOSTILITIES” IN VENEZUELA
The US military shot down another boat carrying people it claimed were narco-terrorists, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth announced Wednesday. (Omer Havana/Getty Images)
On Wednesday, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee also penned a letter requesting a review of the legal justifications behind the series of boat attacks that they say appear to violate many laws.
“Drug trafficking is a horrific crime that has devastating effects on American families and communities and must be prosecuted. However, the President’s actions to hold alleged drug traffickers accountable must still comply with the law,” the letter states.
The Trump administration has voiced concerns about the strikes, killing people without due process, and the possibility of killing innocent people, among them. It has also been scrutinized by members of his own party, including Rand Paul, R-Ky.
Paul cited Coast Guard statistics showing that a significant percentage of boats boarded on suspicion of drug trafficking are innocent.
The senator also argued that if the administration plans to go to war with Venezuela after targeting boats it claims were carrying drugs for the Venezuela-linked Tren de Aragua gang, it should ask Congress for a declaration of war. In the House of Representatives, R-Ky. His representative, Thomas Massie, made similar statements.
The Pentagon claimed that “appropriate” committees were notified of the strikes. (Reuters)
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This comes after Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth announced on Wednesday that the US military had attacked another boat carrying people it said were narco-terrorists. The attacks were carried out in the Eastern Pacific region under the orders of President Donald Trump and killed four people on board.
This was the 14th attack on suspected drug vessels since September. A total of 61 people were reported to have died, three survived, among whom at least two were later repatriated.
The Pentagon has not released the identities of those killed or evidence that drugs were on the ship.
