Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday warned drug cartels that they could be obliterated after the U.S. struck narco-trafficking terrorists in the Caribbean Sea.
President Donald Trump announced on Sept. 2 that America hit and sank a vessel belonging to the Venezuelan drug cartel Tren de Aragua, killing 11 members, with Vance vigorously defending the attack. On One America News Network’s “The Matt Gaetz Show,” host Matt Gaetz asked Vance what he believed “the rules of engagement should be when the United States military has the ability to kill someone bringing drugs into America.”
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“Matt, I think the rules of engagement should be similar to what they are in war because we are in fact in a war against these drug cartels,” Vance said. “And I understand the concerns about due process. I understand some of the criticisms that have been raised, but this is not a situation where we can send the Navy SEALs into these places, arrest them and give them a proper civil trial or criminal trial.”
“These people are engaged in criminal terrorist organizations. Sometimes they have the backing of organizations that are more powerful than the governments that exist in these countries,” he continued. “And our attitude is very simple: that if you’re engaged in war against the American people, you are at risk of having your entire operation literally blown to bits … If you’re trying to kill our citizens, if you’re engaged in these criminal cartels, we’re going to treat you like a foreign enemy of the United States because that’s exactly what you are.”
Vance also clashed with liberal commentator Brian Krassenstein on X Saturday after Krassenstein accused the Trump administration of committing “a war crime” after the Sept. 2 strike.
“I don’t give a shit what you call it,” the vice president retorted.
Trump classified certain Latin American gangs as terrorist organizations in August and subsequently authorized the U.S. military to strike them.
Moreover, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in Mexico City on Sept. 3 that strikes simliar to the operation would occur in the future, according to The Washington Post.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also posted a video on X Tuesday of the U.S. Coast Guard incinerating another narco boat.
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