As we all know, Donald Trump has changed the rules of the game in taking on the drug trade.
Trump has greenlit Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to use our military to engage alleged narco-terrorist boats carrying drugs in international waters, vessels the administration believes are headed to the United States.
Trump has taken considerable heat over the operations, including from some Republicans, but the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee just backed Trump’s play.
The administration has been carrying out strikes for more than a month now, recently taking out three more alleged narco-terrorists in yet another operation.
On Thursday, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced that particular strike on X.
He wrote, "Today, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization.”
His post continued, "The vessel was trafficking narcotics in the Caribbean and was struck in international waters. No U.S. forces were harmed in the strike, and three male narco-terrorists -- who were aboard the vessel -- were killed.”
We have seen pushback on this issue from plenty of Democrats, and a few Republicans, including Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).
Paul has been adamant that these alleged drug runners are being effectively summarily executed and robbed of due process. During a recent interview, he stated, “No, they go against all of our tradition. When you kill someone, you should know, if you’re not at war, not in a declared war, you really need to know someone’s name at least.”
He continued, “You have to accuse them of something. You have to present evidence. So all of these people have been blown up without us knowing their name, without any evidence of a crime.”
This has become a talking point for Democrats as well, who are now threatening to possibly impeach Trump over this (as long as a laundry list of other alleged charges) if they take back control of Congress. Believe me, Dems would like nothing more than to hit Trump with murder charges.
That narrative just took a critical blow, however, as Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has just emphatically supported Trump when it comes to these strikes.
Warner stated that he would prefer for these drug traffickers to be “taken to court rather than blown up,” but he also stated, "I think they do have visibility into drug trafficking.” He also alleviated concerns that Trump would be conducting any operations in Venezuela, saying, "The final comment I’ll make is just that nothing in the legal opinion even mentions Venezuela.”
Warner even criticized the Biden administration for missing a “huge opportunity” on this front, stating, "I frankly think the Biden administration didn’t go far enough after the Venezuelan people voted overwhelmingly to get rid of Maduro. We missed a huge opportunity when Venezuelans -- in numbers probably in the mid-sixties percent -- came out against Maduro, even under threat of violence. The fact that we didn’t rally the region at that point was, in retrospect, a huge mistake."
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has also supported Trump and our intelligence agencies on the strikes, stating, "We have exquisite intelligence about these strikes on these vessels. We know the contents of the boats. We know the personnel almost to a person."
This all has to be a relief for Trump, as it would more or less kill any thoughts the Democrats have of using these strikes against him in an impeachment hearing, something I'm sure will take place if the Democrats reclaim the House.
