A growing number of Republicans are publicly challenging President Donald Trump’s expanding bombing campaign against alleged drug-trafficking cartel boats in the Caribbean and Pacific.
Most Republicans in Congress have shown little opposition to Trump in his second term as he stretched the limits of executive power, but signs of dissent have emerged over the military campaign launched in early September, without congressional approval, that now threatens to expand into land strikes against Venezuela.
Read More: Trump’s Domestic Pressures for a Potential War in Venezuela
Republican Sen. Mike Rounds, a member of the Armed Services Committee, called for greater scrutiny of the strikes in an interview with the New York Times on Wednesday.
“We have oversight responsibilities, and we expect to get our questions answered,” he said.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, of North Carolina, also urged talks on authorizing the use of force. “I think we’ve got to be very careful when you’re talking about ordering a kinetic strike,” he told the Times.
Sen. Susan Collins, of Maine, also told the Times there are legitimate questions about the legality of Trump’s strikes without congressional authority. Collins said she would like to see the Senate “pass a resolution that either authorizes his force or prevents its use,” although the comments come after Senate Republicans struck down a measure that would have blocked Trump from continuing his assault on unmarked boats.
Read more: Trump’s Caribbean Bombing Campaign Brings War on Terror to the Americas
Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford told C-SPAN that the White House “needs to give insight” to Congress about the military strikes
“If this was happening with this level of insight under the Biden administration, I’d be apoplectic,” Lankford said Thursday.
Senator Rand Paul, a libertarian Republican from Kentucky, has emerged as a consistent critic of the campaign. Paul has gone so far this weekend as to join international experts in calling the strikes, which the Trump Administration says have killed 43 people, “extrajudicial killings.”
“No one said their name, no one said what evidence, no one said whether they’re armed, and we’ve had no evidence presented,” he said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”
“The Constitution says that when you go to war, Congress has to vote on it,” he added, emphasizing that the “drug war” is something that has traditionally been done through domestic law enforcement.
“So, at this point, I would call them extrajudicial killings. And this is akin to what China does, to what Iran does with drug dealers,” he said.
Paul and Sen. Lisa Murkowski were the only two Republicans who voted with Democrats to block the bombing campaign without Congressional approval. The resolution to prohibit attacks “within or against” Venezuela without explicit authorization from Congress has been reintroduced this month—this time as a bipartisan effort.
The campaign has drawn criticism from experts concerned about the expansion of executive authority and breaches of both national and international law. Paul’s comments come after the Trump Administration confirmed its 10th strike on the alleged drug-trafficking boats, and although Trump has denied that he is seeking regime change in Venezuela, he has increased threats against the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, with a massive naval buildup off of Venezuela’s coast.
Just this weekend, the Pentagon dispatched the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Gerald Ford, to the region, and a U.S. Navy destroyer ship arrived in Trinidad and Tobago, equipped with guided missiles, Marines, and advanced weapons systems. The moves resulted in fury from Maduro, who was re-elected last year in what independent experts have characterized as a fraudulent election, and who said that the U.S. is trying to “invent a new eternal war” against his nation.
Most Republicans have remained loyal to Trump, however.
Sen. Lindsay Graham told CBS News’ Face the Nation over the weekend that land strikes on Venezuela are a “real possibility,” and that Trump has decided that it is time for Maduro to “go.” Although Trump has previously said that he did not need congressional authorization to continue his cartel assault, he has said that his Administration would “probably go back to Congress and explain exactly what we are doing” before launching land strikes. He insisted, still, that his Administration would not need its authority or approval.
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