Sen. Tim Kaine on Face the Nation this morning (h/t to The Bulwark for capturing video clips):
- “We think the escalating pace and some of the recent revelations – so, for example, the recent revelation about the ‘kill everyone’ order apparently dictated by Secretary Hegseth – we do believe that we will get more support for these motions when they are refiled..if that reporting is true, it’s a clear violation of DoD’s own laws of war, as well as international laws about the way you treat people who are in that circumstance. And so this rises to the level of a war crime if it’s true.”
- “And the questions that we have been asking for months are, give us the evidence that the folks on board were really narcotraffickers. In one instance, there were two survivors, one Colombian and one Ecuadorian; in another strike, the U.S. picked them up and returned them to their countries of origin where they were released. If they were traffickers, why would we do that? We need more evidence about that. We need the administration to answer the question of why strike rather than interdict? If you know where the ships are, you can interdict. When you do, you get evidence, you get individuals, you can squeeze them to give testimony against higher ups, you get evidence with the drug seizures.”
- “The other question my colleagues and I are worried about is the entire legal rationale for the strikes. We had to pry with a crowbar after weeks and weeks out of the administration the supposed legal rationale for the strikes in international waters. It was very shoddy. Because it’s classified, I can’t tell you what’s in it. I can tell you it was not at all persuasive that these are legal actions.”
- “And so together with a whole series of things – the early retirement of the head of Southcom, the news the lead attorney said the strikes were not lawful, the decision of allies like the UK to stop sharing intelligence with the United States in this area because they believe the strikes are illegal – it’s time for Congress to rein in a president who is deciding to wage war on his own say-so, which is not what the constitution allows.”
- “This is shocking [the pardon of the former Honduran president who is currently serving a 45-year sentence for conspiring with drug cartels to move 400 tons of cocaine from Honduras to the U.S.]. Again, this is not an individual who is accused of running drugs to the United States. He was convicted in a federal court in the United States. One of the bits of evidence was his statement that was picked up by those near to him that he wanted to shove drugs up the nose of gringos and flood the United States with cocaine, more than 400 tons. He was the leader of one of the largest criminal enterprises that has ever been subject to a conviction in U.S. courts. And less than one year into his sentence, President Trump is pardoning him, suggesting President Trump cares NOTHING about narcotrafficking, suggesting possibly that pardons are now for sale by this White House. And if he doesn’t care about narcotrafficking – and this was shown earlier this year with the pardoning of Ross Ulbricht – then what is this Venezuela thing about? The president of Columbia thinks it’s about the U.S. trying to seize oil assets in Venezuela. I lived in Honduras for a year as a missionary way back when. The conspiracy theories are running wild in the Americas about why this military effort is so important to the president, when he is pardoning drug kingpins who are running drugs into the United States. These are also questions that we’re going to have to dig deeply into when we return to Washington tomorrow.”
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