Republican lawmakers scrutinize Trump administration over ‘drug boat’ strikes | US Congress
As the Trump administration continues military strikes against alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean, some Republican lawmakers are increasing scrutiny of the administration due to a twin attack in early September.
Attacks on suspected drug ships coming from Venezuela drew reactions from both sides; especially a second attack on a single boat to kill any survivors. Washington Post reported He said that the order for the second attack came from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, but Hegseth denied it.
At Donald Trump’s cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Hegseth reaffirmed that decorated US Navy admiral Frank Bradley ultimately “sinked the boat and eliminated the threat.” Hegseth said that while he “watched the initial attack,” he “wasn’t around for an hour or two” afterward.
Now Congress steps in. Bradley will sit down Thursday with top lawmakers on both the House and Senate armed services committees for a classified briefing on the events of Sept. 2.
“Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. “Admiral Bradley worked well within his authority and the law, directing the conflict to ensure the destruction of the boat and the elimination of the threat to the United States.”
Republican senator Rand Paul from Kentucky said he was not convinced by the administration’s explanation for the second strike. “In that sense, it seems like they’re trying to shift the blame to someone else,” Paul told reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday evening. He touched on the changing statements made by Hegseth and the White House.
“On Sunday, Minister Hegseth said he had no knowledge of this and that nothing like this had happened,” Paul added. “And the next day, from the podium at the White House, they say it happened. So either he was lying to us on Sunday, or he was incompetent and didn’t know it was happening.”
Meanwhile, Republican senator from West Virginia, Jim Justice, said in an interview with MS Now that a “two-hit” operation “disturbed” him. He added that it would be “unacceptable” if the Pentagon ordered an attack to kill the survivors on the boat.
Roger Wicker, the Mississippi Republican who chairs the Senate armed services committee, said last week that members would conduct “rigorous oversight to determine the facts surrounding these circumstances.”
Some lawmakers, including Jack Reed, the committee’s top Democrat, also called on the administration to release video footage of the second strike. “If they did nothing wrong then this video should completely exonerate them. Why aren’t they releasing it?” said Reed.
Outgoing North Carolina senator Thom Tillis also said the second strike was “a violation of ethical, moral and legal rules.” he told CNN.
“If the facts come out the way they are being reported now, then someone needs to get the hell out of Washington,” he said. “Whoever that is, that’s the person who made the decision, and we can just ignore that it’s up to that person alone. Everyone in the chain of command who is responsible for this, who has the vision for this, needs to be held accountable.”
Tillis cast the deciding vote to confirm Hegseth in January, a move he has since expressed regret. “As time has gone on, it has become clear that he has outgrown his competence as a manager of a large and complex organization,” the retired Republican said. In an interview with CNN in July.
Roger Marshall, the Republican senator from Kansas who came to Hegseth’s defense during the review, said he stood behind the Pentagon chief. “This is war and it’s ugly. War is never pretty. I want to collect all the facts,” he told MS Now’s Morning Joe. “Let’s gather the facts, but let’s not pass judgment here.”
Marshall went on to defend the strikes generally: “We’re losing several hundred Americans every day to this drug poisoning, and I think these strikes are slowing down the importation of these deadly, lethal drugs.”
