Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, criticized the Trump administration and his Republicans colleagues following a briefing on the legality of Caribbean boat strikes that excluded Democrats.
In that Wednesday briefing, Trump administration figures shared a document that has been widely sought by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle – an opinion drafted by attorneys at the Department of Justice that argues the strikes that have killed 57 people are within the bounds of the law.
Warner called the meeting a “corrosive” act designed as a “political ploy to try to give assurance to their team.”
“Somebody needs to be held accountable on this,” he said.
“Didn’t somebody raise their hand and say, ‘Well, holy crap, where are the Democrats?’ Who was willing to say, you know, ‘Isn’t there a constitutional obligation here?’ You know it is about separation of powers. For the folks who waive their constitution around, read the damn thing and then explain why you would sit through that briefing and not call foul.”
Warner and his House counterpart Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) previously raised concerns about being rebuffed by intelligence community leaders when asking questions about the boat strikes.
“If you’ve got a valid legal opinion, wouldn’t you want to share it with every member? If you believe, I think the administration does, that we know these guys are bad guys, wouldn’t you want to catch them and show the world the drugs and show their history of bad activities?” Warner said, nodding to the typical practice of interdicting boats suspected of ferrying drugs rather than blowing them up.
Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday also asked for the legal memo, saying the strikes appear to violate a number of different laws.
Warner said the administration shared that information with more than a dozen GOP senators, including those beyond the Armed Services and Intelligence committees, which typically have the greatest insight into U.S. military activities abroad.
Warner said that all members of Congress, regardless of party, have an obligation to conduct oversight of the White House, particularly when it comes to scrutiny of deadly military action.
“It’s not optional. It’s a freakin’ duty. When an administration decides it can pick and choose which elected representatives get the understanding of their legal argument of why this is needed for military force and only chooses a particular party, it ignores all the checks and balances,” he said.
“This is not about procedure or process or even precedent. When you politicize decision making about putting our service members in harm’s way, you make them less safe.”
To Warner, the episode signals also the erosion of bipartisanship on national security issues.
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) told a reporter from Roll Call he was unaware the meeting excluded Democrats until he arrived.
“I give Mike Rounds credit, but I think somebody should have walked out of a meeting yesterday,” Warner said.
“I can tell you this, I would never participate in a meeting like that.”
Warner said he had been personally promised the legal opinion drafted by DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a longtime colleague as the two spent years side by side leading the Senate Intelligence Committee.
“I was proud to support him for Secretary of State. He looked me in the eye and promised me this. I hope that he assumed that promise would be carried out before he left the country, and I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise,” Warner said.
