Senate Democrats have criticized the Trump administration after being excluded from a classified briefing on recent U.S. military strikes targeting suspected drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific.
The decision to brief only Republican lawmakers has raised questions about the legality of the operations.
Sen. Mark Warner, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the move “indefensible and dangerous.”
Highlights
- Senate Democrats condemned the Trump administration for excluding them from classified briefings on U.S. military strikes targeting drug boats.
- Sen. Mark Warner called the exclusion of Democrats from briefings “indefensible and dangerous,” demanding legal justification for the strikes.
- The Trump administration conducted 14 lethal strikes since September, killing at least 61, without releasing evidence of drugs on targeted boats.
Democrats have criticized the Trump administration for excluding them from a classified briefing
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In a statement Thursday, Warner said: “Shutting Democrats out of a briefing on U.S. military strikes and withholding the legal justification for those strikes from half the Senate is indefensible and dangerous.”
“Decisions about the use of American military force are not campaign strategy sessions, and they are not the private property of one political party.”
He added: “For any administration to treat them that way erodes our national security and flies in the face of Congress’ constitutional obligation to oversee matters of war and peace.”
Warner said that excluding Democrats undermines congressional oversight of war powers and sets a “reckless and deeply troubling precedent.”
He demanded that the administration provide Democrats with the same information and legal opinion that the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel produced to justify the strikes.
Warner claimed U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio promised him, face-to-face, that he would provide the documents to Warner at a meeting last week.
“Americans deserve a government that fulfills its constitutional duties and treats decisions about the use of military force with the seriousness they demand,” he said.
The controversy followed reports that the Department of War, led by Secretary Pete Hegseth, conducted another strike on Wednesday on a vessel in the Eastern Pacific.
Hegseth said four “narco-terrorists” were killed in what he described as a “lethal kinetic strike.”
Democrats questioned the legality of U.S. military strikes on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific
It was the 14th such strike since September, bringing the reported death toll to at least 61 people. The Pentagon has not released the identities of those killed or evidence that drugs were on the boats.
A Pentagon spokesperson defended the administration’s actions, saying the “appropriate committees of jurisdiction” had been briefed.
“The Department of War has briefed the appropriate committees of jurisdiction, including the Senate Intelligence Committee, numerous times throughout the operations targeting narco-terrorists,” Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said in a statement.
“These have occurred on a bipartisan basis, and will continue as such.”
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Members of the House Armed Services Committee who did attend a separate briefing earlier this week walked away angry.
They said administration officials provided no lawyers to explain the legal basis for the strikes and declined to answer key questions.
“There were no lawyers and it was unsatisfactory,” Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-Calif.) said.
Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) added that he left “without an understanding of how and why they're making an assessment that the use of legal force is adequate here.”
The administration has justified the strikes as part of a broader campaign against “narco-terrorists” tied to Venezuela. U.S. President Donald Trump has declared the U.S. in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, citing his constitutional authority to act without congressional approval.
Lawmakers from both parties, however, argue that the strikes may violate U.S. and international law.
“There's nothing that we heard in there that changes my assessment that this is completely illegal,” Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) said after the briefing.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) voiced similar concerns, warning that such actions risk killing innocent people. He argued that if the administration plans to engage in a war with Venezuela, it must seek a declaration of war from Congress.”
The administration has not said when or if Democrats will receive a full briefing.