‘I’d Be Apoplectic’: GOP Senator Demands Trump Give More Info on Boat Strikes
Two senators from opposite sides of the aisle agree that the Trump administration must inform Congress about the airstrikes on alleged drug-running boats heading to the United States from Venezuela.
The Trump administration has made nine airstrikes on such vessels, killing dozens of people in the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth upped the ante Friday, announcing he was sending an aircraft carrier to the coast of Latin America to intercept alleged drug boats.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) and Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) appeared on C-SPAN Friday to demand answers from the Pentagon.
“I’ve gotten more valuable updates from the press than from either the Pentagon or the White House,” Coons said. “As the senior Democrat on Defense and Intelligence Appropriations, I have one of the highest clearance levels of anyone in Congress…and bluntly, these programs, I should not find out about in the press.”
Coons said he was worried that the boat strikes were leading toward war with Venezuela.
“I agree that we should be interdicting drugs, that we should be preventing drugs from coming to the United States and killing Americans, and I agree that [Nicolas] Maduro is not a legitimate leader, that he did not win his last election, and have generally supported efforts to promote democracy. But to do so by force of arms, without consultation in any meaningful way with Congress gravely concerns me,” said Coons. “The facts here don’t fully support how it’s being presented, and I do think that they owe Congress deep consultation before they go the next step.”
Moderator Dasha Burns asked Lankford, a Republican, “Do you agree with any of that?”
“Shockingly, I do,” Lankford said. “The administration needs to give insight into Congress, that’s part of it. If this was happening with this level of insight under the Biden administration I’d be apoplectic. And I would say, hey, listen, I serve on the Intelligence Committee…this is typical consultation. It’s not permission, but it is, ‘Hey, I want to let you know this is happening and here are the details of what’s happening, and here’s why and what. And here’s what we know…that’s important. We’re all elected officials, we’re in a co-equal branch of government, and we’ve got to be able to have that kind of coordination.”
Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.
