‘We Expect to Get Our Questions Answered’

A growing number of Republican senators are publicly demanding greater oversight of President Donald Trump’s bombing campaign against suspected drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, arguing Congress has been left out of a campaign that could expand to strikes on Venezuela.

The administration has carried out 10 known lethal strikes it says targeted drug-smuggling vessels and has deployed a major naval force to the region, including the USS Gerald R. Ford; the White House says the operations have killed 43 people.

Several Republicans urged more formal congressional involvement. “I think we’ve got to be very careful when you’re talking about ordering a kinetic strike,” said Republican Senator Thom Tillis to The New York Times recently, while Republican Senator Susan Collins added that the Senate should “pass a resolution that either authorizes his force or prevents its use.”

Senator James Lankford, Republican of Oklahoma told C-SPAN the White House “needs to give insight” to Congress, adding:

“If this was happening, with this level of insight, under the Biden administration, I’d be apoplectic We’re not his opponent on this, we are an ally in this to be able to solve it, but we need to be able to have a voice on it as a coequal branch”

“We have oversight responsibilities, and we expect to get our questions answered,” Senator Mike Rounds, a member of the Armed Services Committee, said in the same interview.

Libertarian Republican Senator Rand Paul has been among the sharpest critics, calling the strikes “extrajudicial killings” on “Fox News Sunday,” and saying that “no one said their name, no one said what evidence, no one said whether they’re armed, and we’ve had no evidence presented.”

Paul and Senator Lisa Murkowski were the only two Republicans to vote with Democrats on an earlier measure to block the strikes without congressional approval; the bipartisan resolution to prohibit attacks “within or against” Venezuela has been reintroduced.

Despite dissent, most Republicans have backed the president. Senator Jim Risch praised the strikes, saying “the president of the United States saved lives, lots of lives,” in an interview quoted by the aforementioned NYT piece.