Senators from both parties are expressing concerns about President Trump\u2019s unilateral approach to conducting military strikes against alleged drug cartel boats in the Caribbean.<\/p>\n
On the Sunday show circuit, several lawmakers raised questions about the legality of the U.S. military campaign \u2014 which last week carried out its 10th attack<\/a> in recent months on vessels that officials say are trafficking narcotics with the hope of reaching the U.S. \u2014 without congressional authorization.<\/p>\n While Democrats took a sharper tone than Republicans, there were members of Trump’s party expressing reservations about the campaign.<\/p>\n In an interview on \u201cFox News Sunday,\u201d Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Congress has seen no evidence<\/a> to back up the Trump administration\u2019s claims about drug trafficking and has not voted to authorize the efforts.<\/p>\n \u201cSo far, they have alleged that these people are drug dealers. No one said their name. No one said what evidence. No one said whether they\u2019re armed. And we\u2019ve had no evidence presented,\u201d Paul said.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, at this point, I would call them extrajudicial killings,\u201d he continued. \u201cAnd this is akin to what China does, to what Iran does with drug dealers. They summarily execute people without presenting evidence to the public. So, it\u2019s wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n The U.S. military, at Trump\u2019s direction, has carried out strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea, off the coast of Venezuela, and more recently in the East Pacific.<\/p>\n Trump has also\u00a0authorized\u00a0CIA operations<\/a> in Venezuela, and Defense Secretary\u00a0Pete Hegseth\u00a0deployed an aircraft carrier and its strike group to South America last week. The moves have escalated\u00a0tensions<\/a>\u00a0between the U.S. and Venezuela\u2019s authoritarian leader, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.\u00a0<\/p>\n Trump on Thursday mused about briefing the Senate about the military operation but brushed off the suggestion that he needs Senate authorization, as the Constitution requires.<\/p>\n \u201cThe land is going to be next, and we may go to the Senate. We may go to the \u2014 you know, Congress and tell them about it. But I can’t imagine they’d have any problem with it,\u201d Trump said. \u201cAnd I think they’re going to probably like it, except for the radical-left lunatics.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked about Trump\u2019s comments in the Sunday interview, Paul welcomed the idea of a briefing but said, \u201cA briefing is not enough to overcome the Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Constitution says that when you go to war, Congress has to vote on it,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who joined Paul in the \u201cFox News Sunday\u201d interview, agreed with his Republican colleague.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we’re going to be in a war, whether it’s against boats in Nicaragua chosen off a secret list that the president won’t share with Congress or the public, or a land invasion in Venezuela, it should be done following the debate and a vote in Congress,\u201d Kaine said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Ford strike group that’s being deployed has an awful lot of Virginians,\u201d Kaine added. \u201cThey shouldn’t be sent in harm’s way unless Congress has the guts to vote about whether a war is in the national interest.\u201d<\/p>\n Kaine and Paul, along with Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), introduced a war powers resolution<\/a> this month to try to block the use of force by Americans troops within or against Venezuela after Trump raised the possibility of deploying ground troops.<\/p>\n Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a key ally of the president\u2019s, said in an interview on CBS News\u2019s \u201cFace the Nation\u201d that, on Saturday, he spoke to Trump, who said he plans to brief lawmakers on the military effort when he returns from his trip to Asia. Graham noted that land strikes in Venezuela are a \u201creal possibility.\u201d<\/p>\n But Graham pushed back on the suggestion<\/a> that the president is operating outside the bounds of his authority.<\/p>\n \u201cRand Paul, I just fundamentally disagree with,\u201d Graham said. \u201cTo the other senators, you deserve more information and you’re going to get more information. But there is no requirement for Congress to declare war before the commander in chief can use force.\u201d<\/p>\n Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), in an interview<\/a> on ABC News\u2019s \u201cThis Week,\u201d said it\u2019s \u201cquestionable\u201d whether the Trump administration\u2019s military activity is legal.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s questionable. And the White House and the Department of Defense could not give us a logical explanation on how this is legal. They were tying themselves in knots trying to explain this. We had a lot of questions for them, both Democrats and Republicans. It was not a good meeting. It did not go well,\u201d Kelly said, referring to a prior meeting.<\/p>\n Kelly also said evidence he\u2019s seen does not support the administration\u2019s claim that the boats targeted were carrying fentanyl. He said there is evidence, however, that there were other drugs on some of the boats.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were presented some evidence that does not back up the story that the White House is telling to the American people,\u201d Kelly said in the Sunday interview.<\/p>\n Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) went a step further, likening the Trump administration\u2019s military campaign to \u201cmurder.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked on NBC News\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press\u201d whether he agrees with the Trump administration\u2019s claim that the strikes are consistent with international law, the Democrat said, \u201cNo, it\u2019s murder.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s very simple,\u201d he continued. \u201cIf this president feels that they’re doing something illegally, then he should be using the Coast Guard. If it’s an act of war, then you use our military, and then you come and talk to us first. But this is murder. It’s sanctioned murder that he is doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier this week, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) raised questions<\/a> about the military effort and the administration’s circumvention of Congress.<\/p>\n \u201cThe administration needs to give insight into Congress. That\u2019s part of it. If this was happening with this level of insight under the Biden administration, I\u2019d be apoplectic,\u201d Lankford said during a Thursday<\/a> appearance on C-SPAN\u2019s new \u201cCeasefire\u201d program<\/a>.<\/p>\n He appeared alongside Democratic Sen. Chris Coons (Del.), who also shared that he was shocked after learning in the press about the attacks ordered by the White House.<\/p>\n \u201cI serve on the Intelligence Committee. He serves as a senior Democrat on Defense. This is typical consultation,\u201d Lankford told host Dasha Burns. \u201cIt\u2019s not permission, but it is, \u2018Hey, I want to let you know this is happening and hear the details of what\u2019s happening and here\u2019s why and what, and here\u2019s what we know.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Senators from both parties are expressing concerns about President Trump\u2019s unilateral approach to conducting military strikes against alleged drug cartel boats in the Caribbean. On the Sunday show circuit, several lawmakers raised questions about the legality of the U.S. military campaign \u2014 which last week carried out its 10th attack in recent months on vessels […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltalentholding.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1156"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltalentholding.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltalentholding.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltalentholding.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltalentholding.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1156"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globaltalentholding.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1157,"href":"https:\/\/globaltalentholding.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1156\/revisions\/1157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltalentholding.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltalentholding.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltalentholding.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltalentholding.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}