Two Senate Republicans crossed party lines Wednesday evening in a failed effort to block President Donald Trump from launching military strikes on alleged drug trafficking ships in the Caribbean.
The resolution, sponsored by multiple Senate Democrats and Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, would have restricted Trump’s authority in conducting such strikes, citing Congress’s sole authority to declare war, and it accuses the Trump administration of not providing justification for the military attacks on drug cartels. The bipartisan measure’s defeat comes as the vast majority of Americans say they support Trump’s decision to blow up ships bringing drugs into the United States.
Paul and Republican Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski voted to restrict Trump’s use of military force to combat drug trafficking into the United States. Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman joined a majority of Republicans in opposing the resolution.
The Trump administration has labeled several drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and has begun engaging in armed conflict against traffickers attempting to smuggle drugs into the country.
Trump has launched four military strikes on Venezuelan drug cartel Tren de Aragua ships near Venezuela over the past month. Those strikes have killed at least 21 individuals.
The strikes are one of Trump’s most popular policies with 71% of Americans backing the destruction of drug boats, according to a September Harvard CAPS/Harris poll.
The White House urged Republicans to reject the war powers resolution on Wednesday, arguing the military strikes are within Trump’s executive branch authority. It is not clear whether House Speaker Mike Johnson would allow a similar resolution to receive a vote in his chamber. The measure would almost certainly be vetoed by Trump in the event it cleared the House.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in the Capitol on Wednesday that Trump has the authority to unilaterally order these strikes because “these are targeted strikes against imminent threats against the United States.”
“This resolution aims to strip President Trump of his constitutional authority to protect Americans by authorizing military strikes against narco-terrorists, the Houthis, and other Iranian proxies,” Rubio said on X Wednesday. “This is dangerous — it puts our children, citizens, soldiers, and allies at risk.”
“Drug cartels from Mexico and Venezuela have killed more Americans than any foreign enemy, yet Democrats are pushing a resolution that would let deadly drugs keep flowing into our country,” Republican South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott said on X Wednesday. “As Commander in Chief, @POTUS is lawfully protecting our homeland and stopping narco-terrorists who threaten our safety. His leadership is saving American lives.”
Still, two Republicans bucked the president to limit his ability to target drug trafficking ships in the Caribbean.
“Coast Guard statistics show that 25% of the time when they do an inspection of a boat suspected of drugs that there are no drugs, which kind of concerns me,” Sen. Paul told reporters Wednesday. “If 25% of the time when they board a ship, there’s no drugs, what about the ones that are being blown up without being boarded?”
“Is it too much to ask to know the names of those we kill before we kill them?” Paul asked later on the Senate floor. “To know what evidence exists of their guilt?”
“JD ‘I don’t give a shit’ Vance says killing people he accuses of a crime is the ‘highest and best use of the military.’ Did he ever read To Kill a Mockingbird?” Paul asked on X following the first strike in September. “Did he ever wonder what might happen if the accused were immediately executed without trial or representation?? What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial.”
Paul’s Republican colleague, Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio, accused Paul of prioritizing “foreign terrorist drug traffickers” over the interests of the Americans who have suffered from an influx of fentanyl into the country.
“JD understands that our first responsibility is to protect the life and liberty of American citizens,” Moreno said.
The vast majority of Senate Democrats have described the strikes as unconstitutional and illegal.
“The bottom line is, we have to be extremely careful that no president, not Trump or anybody else, has unilateral power to take this country into war and start killing people without any congressional authority,” Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a cosponsor of the bill, told reporters Wednesday. “That is unconstitutional and of great concern.”
“If a president can unilaterally put people or groups on a list and kill them, there is no meaningful limit to his use of force,” Democrat California Sen. Adam Schiff wrote on X Wednesday.
The resolution stresses that Congress “has not received sufficient information” regarding the strikes, claiming ignorance of “the vessels’ passengers, cargo, or affiliation; the vessels’ intended destinations; [and] any threats the vessels posed to United States interests.”
Andi Shae Napier contributed to this report.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America / Wikimedia Commons)
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