| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
| Why Congress needs to be consulted. | ||
| We need guardrails. | ||
| We need oversight. | ||
| This is the first briefing that we have had to the United States Congress in the months since an engagement, an armed engagement, has occurred. | ||
| It's wrong, and it has to change. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Could you support a war powers resolution that was narrowly tailored to address the narcotics movement in this area? | |
| Or do you feel like the congressional step there would be to put more guardrails around this? | ||
| Well, we need to have the debate, actually. | ||
| Congress needs to be engaged to debate whether or not the use of the military is the right response to interdicting counter-narcotics in the Western Hemisphere. | ||
| This is precisely the role of the United States Congress. | ||
| And once that debate happens, we can determine whether or not that's appropriate. | ||
| But again, we spent 20 years doing this without debate, without the authorizations, without the oversight, and we've seen how this turns out. | ||
| It doesn't turn out well. | ||
| We have to run. | ||
| All right, thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| What did you make of that briefing? | ||
| Yeah, so we just received a briefing from the Secretary of War and the Secretary of State and our top military officials on the strikes against the narco-terrorists off the coast of Venezuela. | ||
| Questions are still being answered by members, but I think the information that was provided was very helpful. | ||
| It affirms what many of us have already known. | ||
| And I'm going to share some thoughts with you about what was shared in there, but ultimately the big question about what authority supports all this. | ||
| The President of the United States has directed these actions consistent with his responsibility. | ||
| And that responsibility is clear to protect Americans and United States interests abroad and in furtherance of the United States national security and foreign policy interests pursuant to his constitutional authority. | ||
| He has that authority as Commander-in-Chief and as the Chief Executive to conduct foreign relations. | ||
| As the Commander-in-Chief, President Trump has both the authority and the obligation to defend our homeland, and I think that's beyond dispute. | ||
| Pursuant to this constitutional authority and the law of armed conflict, the President determined that the United States is in non-international armed conflict. | ||
| That's NIAC, as the acronym is known. | ||
| And that is with designated terrorist organizations and their affiliates who have evolved into complex structures with financial means and parliamentary capabilities needed to operate with impunity, engage in violence and terrorism. | ||
| That presents a clear and present danger to the security of America and threaten other nations in our hemisphere. | ||
| I want to make this point very clear. | ||
| Over the last four years alone, America has lost more lives to drug overdoses and other drug-related deaths than we did to the enemy actions in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq combined. | ||
| This is a serious problem that a serious administration is addressing. | ||
| These are highly organized and sophisticated narco-terrorist organizations, and they operate, as we said, with impunity. | ||
| And the President has determined that these cartels constitute the legally defined groups that allow us to take these actions. | ||
| The Trump administration, by the way, has been much more forthcoming with the legal rationale behind these strikes than prior administrations. | ||
| And I want to point out this one example. | ||
| From 2009 to 2015, President Obama conducted over 500 drone strikes, killing over 3,700 persons, some of whom were United States citizens. | ||
| And he never offered any legal justification to Congress at all. | ||
| The Department of War has now briefed Congress more than 20 times in bipartisan classified settings on these strikes. | ||
| Secretary Rubio and Secretary Hegseth have briefed the Gang of Eight and the Gang of 16 as well. | ||
| I've been in those briefings myself. | ||
| The administration has also made available multiple documents to the Hill, including the Office of Legal Counsel opinion, which has been reviewed by over 150 members. | ||
| The Department of War has shown video of the September 2nd strike to the Gang of Eight and leadership of the Armed Services and Appropriations, Defense Appropriations Committees. | ||
| They'll be made available to all members of the Armed Services Committee this week. | ||
| This is exquisite intelligence that supports these actions. | ||
| It is certainly appropriate, and it's necessary to protect the United States and our interests. | ||
| That's what was presented today. | ||
| Different members have different questions. | ||
| I hope and assume that all those are being answered. | ||
| Thank you all for being here. | ||
| He asked if I was happy at what went on. | ||
| Merry Christmas and happy Hanukkah to everybody else. | ||
| Yeah, I was very happy. | ||
| Can't go into specifics, but I feel like all the legal criteria are met. | ||
| And as I've noted many times, we lost more people to fentanyl than we did to the Vietnam War. |