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Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, slammed the Trump administration after it held briefings with only Republican lawmakers on the U.S. military strikes targeting alleged drug boats in the Caribbean.
Warner called the move to exclude Democrats from the national security briefings “indefensible and dangerous.”
“Shutting Democrats out of a briefing on U.S. military strikes and withholding the legal justification for those strikes from half the Senate is indefensible and dangerous,” the senator said in a statement. “Decisions about the use of American military force are not campaign strategy sessions, and they are not the private property of one political party.”
“For any administration to treat them that way erodes our national security and flies in the face of Congress’ constitutional obligation to oversee matters of war and peace,” he continued.
HEGSETH SAYS MILITARY CONDUCTED ANOTHER STRIKE ON BOAT CARRYING ALLEGED NARCO-TERRORISTS
Sen. Mark Warner criticized the Trump administration for excluding Democrats from briefings on U.S. military strikes against alleged drug boats. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Warner said the partisan “stunt” is a “slap in the face” to Congress’ war powers responsibilities and to the men and women in uniform. He also stressed that it sets a “reckless and deeply troubling precedent.”
Reports indicate that the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) produced a legal opinion justifying the strikes, which Democrats have been demanding in recent weeks.
“The administration must immediately provide to Democrats the same briefing and the OLC opinion justifying these strikes, as Secretary Rubio personally promised me that he would in a face-to-face meeting on Capitol Hill just last week,” Warner said in his statement. “Americans deserve a government that fulfills its constitutional duties and treats decisions about the use of military force…
