Democratic lawmakers on Sunday continued to sound the alarm over allegations that military leaders called for a “double tap” strike on an alleged drug boat, intentionally killing the two survivors of an earlier attack.
Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.) called for accountability while Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.) demanded video of the strikes be released. Sen. Adam Schiff (Calif.) called the strikes “unconstitutional,” and Sen. Tammy Duckworth (Ill.) called the strikes “murder.”
“Everything that they've done has been illegal. It's illegal under international law. It's illegal under the Geneva Convention. And it certainly is illegal under domestic law,” Duckworth told CNN’s State of the Union. “It was essentially murder with that double tap strike."
The Pentagon has come under fire after reporting from The Washington Post alleged that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth authorized a deadly second strike to kill all remaining survivors on a Venezuelan boat allegedly carrying drugs in international waters. POLITICO has not independently verified the Post’s reporting.
Hegseth on Saturday defended the second Sept. 2 strike, saying the attackers were not fully neutralized. “From what I understood then and what I understand now, I fully support that strike,” Hegseth said at the Reagan National Defense Forum. “I would have made the same call myself."
Rep. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) on Sunday defended Hegseth, telling ABC’s “This Week” that a majority of Americans "support us blowing narco-terrorists out of the water in the Caribbean who are trying to poison Americans.”
“I have way more sympathy for my friends, my cousins, my neighbors, those people who've been poisoned by these narco terrorists, people who've been skinned alive by these cartels that they bring people to the United States than I do for these narco terrorists,” Schmitt said.
But Duckworth on Sunday voiced concerns over the effect the strike could have on military members.
"I am mostly concerned with the fact that we are putting our American servicemen and women in jeopardy here,” said Duckworth. “We are putting them in legal jeopardy. They could be brought up in international criminal courts. And so what we're doing here is taking those professionals who are utmost professionals and putting them into harm's way."
Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the intelligence committee, and Rep. Adam Smith, the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, saw footage of the strikes during a meeting with military officials on Thursday. Smith described the videos to ABC’s “This Week” as “deeply disturbing.”
“There were two survivors on an overturned boat,” Smith said. “When they were finally taken out, they weren't trying to flip the boat over. The boat was clearly incapacitated. A tiny portion of it remained capsized, the bow of the boat. They had no communications device. Certainly they were unarmed.”
He added, “Any claim that the drugs had somehow survived that attack is hard to really square with what we saw. So it was deeply disturbing. It did not appear that these two survivors were in any position to continue the fight.”
Himes told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that it is “really important” that the videos of the strikes are released to the public.
“I think it's important that people see what it looks like when the full force of the United States military is turned on two guys who are clinging to a piece of wood and about to go under, so they have a feel for what we are doing,” Himes said.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he would support releasing the footage. His administration has repeatedly defended the boat strikes, which have killed more than 80 people since September, as an attempt to protect Americans from being killed by what he has called narco-terrorists.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said he would support a decision to release video of the strikes.
“It's not gruesome. I didn't find it distressing or disturbing,” Cotton told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I will say that the department may have valid concerns about revealing what we know about tactics and techniques that these cartels are using or about our sources or methods. And I would trust Secretary Hegseth and his team to make the decision about whether they can declassify and release the video. But again, there's nothing remarkable on that video in my opinion."
Cotton also pushed back against the description Democrats have offered of the two survivors.
“They were not floating in the ocean on a wooden plank or in life jackets. They were on the capsized vessel,” Cotton said. “They were not incapacitated in any way. It was entirely appropriate to strike the boat again to make sure that its cargo was destroyed. It is in no way a violation of the law of war."
But Schiff on Sunday said the strikes on people “shipwrecked” at sea was “morally repugnant” with no true legal standing.
“We are boot-strapping an argument that takes people that are thousands of miles away or more than 1,000 miles away — some of which who are not even heading to this country, who are not engaged in an armed attack on this country — and we are somehow labeling them 'invading enemy combatants' to justify their extrajudicial killing,” Schiff told “Meet the Press.”
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