Lawmakers in both parties are ratcheting up pressure on the Trump administration after reports that the U.S. carried out a second strike on a damaged drug-smuggling boat off the coast of Venezuela — a follow-up attack that allegedly killed survivors who had already lived through the initial blast.
CNN and the Washington Post reported that on Sept. 2, the U.S. hit the same vessel again, killing the remaining survivors. The administration has described the dead as 11 “narco-terrorists,” part of a broader push authorized by President Trump to take out suspected smuggling boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. Those strikes have killed more than 80 people so far and further strained tensions with Venezuela and its leader, Nicolás Maduro.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended the operation on Friday, writing on X that the missions are “lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict — and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command.”
But Congress isn’t buying that as a final answer.
Senate Armed Services Committee leaders Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said Saturday that they are already pressing the Pentagon for details.
“The Committee is aware of recent news reports — and the Department of Defense’s initial response — regarding alleged follow-on strikes on suspected narcotics vessels in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” they said in a joint statement. “The Committee has directed inquiries to the Department, and we will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to the circumstances.”
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), who sits on the committee, said Sunday the investigation won’t be a quiet one.
“We’re going to have an investigation,” Kelly told Kristen Welker on NBC’s Meet the Press. “We’re going to have a public hearing. We’re going to put these folks under oath. And we’re going to find out what happened. And then, there needs to be accountability.”
Kelly didn’t rule out that a war crime may have occurred. On CNN’s State of the Union, he said the second strike “seems to” fit that definition if the reporting is accurate.
“If that is true, if what has been reported is accurate, I have got serious concerns about anybody in that chain of command stepping over a line that they should never step over,” he said.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) also didn’t mince words.
“I think it’s very possible there was a war crime committed,” he said on ABC’s This Week.
Some Republicans are sounding the alarm too. Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) called the alleged follow-up strike a “clear violation of the law of war” if the accounts are accurate.
“When people want to surrender, you don’t kill them, and they have to pose an imminent threat,” Bacon said. “It’s hard to believe that two people on a raft, trying to survive, would pose an imminent threat.”
The uproar comes as several senators — Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) — push to reintroduce a war powers resolution that would require Congress to sign off on these maritime strikes. The earlier version didn’t get enough GOP backing, but Kaine said Sunday on Face the Nation that he, Schiff, Paul, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer will bring it back and expect broader support this time. Kaine added that the reported second strike “rises to the level of a war crime if it’s true.”
