‘You’re Not Murdering Anybody’: Sen. Lindsey Graham Rejects Military Concerns Over Attacks on Alleged Drug Boats

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told CBS’s Margaret Brennan on Sunday that President Donald Trump had “all the authority he needs” to conduct the recent military attacks off the coast of Venezuela, maintaining the legality of the strikes while brushing off concerns about the operations’ lack of documentation.

Graham joined Face the Nation to discuss the administration’s recent bombing of drug smuggling vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific Oceans. Over the last two months, nine military strikes have been conducted against boats the administration claims were operated by the Venezuela-based gang Tren de Aragua.

Graham defended the strikes, and the lack of evidence provided for them, in his segment with Brennan:

MARGARET BRENNAN: On Friday, Defense Secretary [Pete] Hegseth ordered the deployment of the Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier, the Gerald Ford, to Latin America. President Trump was asked if he planned to ask Congress for a declaration of war. Take a listen.

[SOUND ON TAPE BEGINS]

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I don’t think we’re going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war. I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, OK. We’re going to kill them. You know, they’re going to be, like, dead.

[SOUNDS OF TAPE ENDS]

MARGARET BRENNAN: You don’t need an aircraft carrier to hit drug boats. Are land strikes planned?

SEN. GRAHAM: Yeah, I think that’s a real possibility. I think President Trump’s made a decision that [Nicolás] Maduro, the leader of Venezuela, is an indicted drug, drug trafficker, that it’s time for him to go, that Venezuela and Colombia have been safe havens for narco-terrorists for too long, and President Trump told me yesterday that he plans to brief members of Congress when he gets back from Asia about future potential military operations against Venezuela and Colombia. So there will be a congressional briefing about a potential expanding from the sea to the land. I support that idea, but I think he has all the authority he needs. Senator [Ruben] Gallego, on another network, accused President Trump and our military of committing murder by attacking these drug boats. To our men and women in uniform: you’re not murdering anybody. You’re making America safer by going after a narco-terrorist. You’re following lawful orders. When President [George] Bush, 41, took Ortega out in Panama, [Ronald] Reagan went into Grenada to deal with the Cuban influence from Grenada in our backyard, he has all the authority in the world. This is not murder. This is protecting America from being poisoned by narco-terrorists coming from Venezuela and Colombia.

Brennan also asked Graham to respond to criticism of the strikes, which has come from within the senator’s own party. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said last week that the strikes were illegal, while Sen. James Lankford told Dasha Burns on Friday that “the administration needs to give insight into Congress.”

“Todd Young also criticized this — what exactly is the end game?” asked Brennan. “Because you’re talking about regime change in Venezuela, the President says this is about drug boats.”

“Yeah. Well, I think the end game is to make sure that Venezuela and Colombia cannot be used to poison America, that the narco-terrorist dictator Maduro no longer be able to threaten our country and to send in drugs to kill Americans,” said Graham.

He continued:

As to Rand Paul, I just disagree fundamentally with his approach. We didn’t have a declaration to go into Panama. Bush 41 went into Panama to replace the leadership there, because the Panama leadership, Panamanian leadership, were working with drug cartels to threaten our country. Reagan didn’t have a declaration of war congressional authorization to deal with Cuban influence. So this idea- Rand Paul, I just fundamentally disagree with. To 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. Panama and Grenada are two examples in our backyard, where Republican presidents chose to go after countries and leaders that were threatening our people.

Brennan pushed the question of legality further, pointing out Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s recent firings of top military legal personnel:

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, you referenced something earlier. Sorry. I want to come back to you said to the men and women of the military that they are carrying out lawful orders. Secretary Hegseth removed the top uniformed lawyers in the Air Force, you know this, the Navy and the Army, because he called them roadblocks to orders that are given by a commander-in-chief. There have been other departures as well. This raises concern that commanders are not being given adequate legal counsel. That is why you just said that sentence, to assure them.

SEN. GRAHAM: That’s that’s garbage, that’s absolute garbage–

(Crosstalk)

MARGARET BRENNAN: Which, that Hegseth said that?

SEN. GRAHAM: No, no. I’m saying that- the theory that President Trump’s doing something here illegally, dealing with a country that’s run by an indicted drug dealer. It’s the same as Panama. There’s a better case to go into Venezuela than there was Panama. There’s a better case to deal with Colombia than there was Grenada. Yeah, I’ve been doing this all of my adult life. I have all the confidence in the world that President Trump has the legal authority, but more importantly, he’s doing the right thing. More Americans have died from cocaine and fentanyl poisoning than any terrorist group in the world. I am very pleased that we now have a president who’s going to use the full force of, of the American people, the might of America, to protect us from narco terrorist states and drug organizations. Keep it up, Mr. President, we’re not committing murder. We’re protecting our nation from people who want to poison us.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, there’s obviously buyers on the other end of it, which is why the cartels are selling, right?

SEN. GRAHAM: Well yeah, we’ll deal with both. We’ll deal with both.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well I want to come back to– when we talk about lawful orders here, I myself spoke to a former senior commander who said he’d want that in writing because of concern that, that this is going to be down the line questionable.

SEN. GRAHAM: What in writing?

MARGARET BRENNAN: You’ve already heard the orders to carry out operations. You’ve already heard Democratic lawmakers, including on this program, say that they have concerns about future prosecutions of officers.

SEN. GRAHAM: Well act on your concerns. Why don’t you- Why don’t you- Okay, if you’ve got concerns, here’s what we can do as members of Congress. We can cut off funding for military operations we don’t like. So if you’re concerned as a Democrat or Republican, why don’t you introduce legislation to cut off all funding to the military when it comes to attacking drug votes and going after narco terrorist states through the military. You can do that. Go ahead and do it. I’ll vote no. I think it has all the authority in the world under Article Two and international law to make sure that countries like Venezuela can’t be staging areas to infiltrate drugs into our country. It’s not a– I think it has all the legal authority in the world. I’m just really glad he’s doing this and Mr. President, keep it up.

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