Senators eye war powers resolution as 14 more alleged traffickers killed

The Department of Defense killed 14 alleged drug traffickers on four boats in the Eastern Pacific Monday

The strikes were carried out in international waters against individuals who the Trump administration says

are members of cartels that have been designated as terrorist organizations. We spoke with Senator Tim Kaine, who introduced a War Paris resolution with Senator Adam Schiff

that, if approved, would block future strikes in the Caribbean unless Congress provides an authorization for the use of military force or an AUMF

Will the senators introduce a new resolution specific to the strikes in the Pacific

And can they get enough Republicans to support it? Here is what I think we'll do

I have the resolution pending with respect to Venezuela. I spoke with Senator Schiff last night

Senator Schiff was the lead. I was the co-sponsor on the earlier resolution about strikes in the Caribbean

I think you might see him file a new authorization that would encompass both Caribbean and Pacific

It certainly is something that we need to bring before the Senate

He and I talked about it last night. I expect you might see him file that. Some senators on both sides of the aisle have said they comfortable because they do consider drug cartels to be terrorists Is there a way to craft an AUMF that you think could be approved and you be comfortable with Not without getting information from the administration

Folks who are saying they're comfortable with going after drug traffickers, we haven't been given evidence to clearly establish that in each case these were drug traffickers

And we've also been given no answer by the administration as to who is on the list that he is using to decide when to strike

and we've not been given information from the administration about why they strike rather than interdict

If you strike, you blow up the evidence. If you interdict, you gather the evidence that you can use for prosecutions

There might be circumstances where a strike is better than interdiction. We've been given no information from the administration about how they make that choice

You can't draft up an AUMF to authorize an operation that the administration wants to keep secret

even from Congress, much less the American people. They would have to provide the information about what's going on and then someone might

make a decision to craft an authorization. But thus far they haven't even provided the information

And then finally, have you seen any intelligence that any of these folks were innocent civilians

It been publicly reported so I not revealing anything from intelligence and many of these questions have not been answered by the administration In one of the earlier strikes there were survivors and those survivors were returned to their country of origin and released

If they were narco-traffickers and we had them in custody, why didn't we arrest them

Why didn't we prosecute them? Why didn't we leverage them to find out information about higher-ups

That suggests that in this case, those individuals may not have been narco-traffickers

And when that is publicly reported, it really raises the stakes to try to make sure that the president is not just assuming the role of judge, jury and executioner, including over people who are not narco traffickers

The Schiffkane resolution pertaining to strikes in the Pacific was blocked by Republicans who say the military is taking the proper precautions to ensure they're only targeting drug cartel members who are actively trafficking drugs into the United States

Trump is doing the right thing. I mean, we don't want, how many of you want drugs in your neighborhood

I have grandkids. I don't want drugs. I don't want my kids, grandkids ever have drugs

What the president's doing, he's finally taking action to stop these drugs from coming into the country

So he's doing the right thing. But don't you have any concern that we don't necessarily know who is on these boats

They're very comfortable they know who's on the boats. Can I ask you a question though I don want drugs in my community But at the same time if you smuggling drugs even if you got found guilty in a court of law you wouldn get the death penalty for that And they getting the death penalty without a trial

I'm fine with that. For specifics on what I was speaking to Senator Scott about

according to the DEA, drug trafficking carries a penalty of a minimum 10 years in prison

to all the way up to life. And that depends on the type of drug, the amount of drugs, and the number of previous offenses

Here's Senator John Cornyn. But I have confidence in the president and his national security team to identify a clear and present danger to the American people and to stop it

We've tried the law enforcement model of arresting our way out of this terrible drug crisis and the deaths that that's caused over the years

And that hasn't worked. So I'm certainly willing to give the president the flexibility to try something different

So if you support it, why not try to make a bigger push to give him authorization through Congress

And it is your authority. Well, he doesn't believe he needs it. And I'm not confident that the Democrats would vote to give it to him

I'm Ray Bogan for Straight Arrow News. For more unbiased reporting straight from our nation's capital, download the SAN app