Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) issued a statement on Wednesday evening, tearing into the Trump administration for holding a briefing with the Senate on the recent military strikes on suspected narcotics smuggling boats in the Caribbean — but only inviting Republican senators.
"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," stated Warner. "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."
"This partisan stunt is a slap in the face to Congress' war powers responsibilities and to the men and women who serve this country. It also sets a reckless and deeply troubling precedent," Warner continued. "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."
"Americans deserve a government that fulfills its constitutional duties and treats decisions about the use of military force with the seriousness they demand," he concluded.
The strikes, which have been going on for weeks and leaving gruesome carnage in their wake, are a drastic departure from both international law and longstanding U.S. policy, which treats potential drug-smuggling ships as a civilian law enforcement issue, interdicting and arresting the crews instead of ordering military strikes. Some of the ships, by the administration's own admission, didn't even have the capability of reaching the United States.
A number of legal experts, including hardcore conservatives and even the author of George W. Bush's torture memo, have warned that these strikes are illegal and could potentially be war crimes.