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.”
UPDATE 6:25 pm: Also, check out the following video by Sen. Kaine, talking more about the FUBAR situation with the possible war crimes being committed by the Trump administration, as well as the also-FUBAR concept of a president going to war without a vote of Congress.
“I have been really pressing the administration on what I believe to be the illegal war activity that they’re waging in the Caribbean and the Pacific. Strikes against boats that they believe to be part of the drug trade, but with somewhat limited evidence about whether that is in fact the case with these strikes. More than 20 boats have been attacked. More than 80 people have been killed. In at least two instances, there were survivors who instead of being arrested, if they were narcotraffickers, were instead repatriated back to Colombia and Ecuador. So maybe they weren’t narcotraffickers.
The framers of the Constitution believe strongly that no president – and they were dealing with George Washington as a president – no president should be able to go to war without a vote of Congress. And this president, President Trump, is waging war in the Pacific and Caribbean and even stating that he may intend to now wage war against the sovereign nation of Venezuela without coming to Congress.
I’m going to keep pressing. I’ve already forced two votes in the Senate on this. I’ve gotten two Republicans to join Democrats on the principle that’s a bedrock principle that we shouldn’t be at war without a vote of Congress. I’m going to keep pressing, getting answers to the questions the American people need and getting Congress to own up to the responsibility that presidents should not wage war on their own.”
“Let’s acknowledge this sad fact: these two guards members, Ms. Beckrom and Mr. Wolf, what a tragedy for them and their families. And you know what? They should have been at home…celebrating Thanksgiving with their families, not deployed in a political deployment to do law enforcement in DC that the DC police and other local law enforcement agencies can do.
And this demonstrates yet again something we’ve seen so often. Our troops, including our Guard’s members, they’re going to serve in brave and courageous and self-sacrificing ways, and we can be so proud of them. But the orders that they get from their civilian leaders, that’s where the problem comes in. Whether it’s a Hegseth order to kill them all or an order to send Guardsmen and women in a political stunt deployment to to cities around the country, these two individuals should have been celebrating Thanksgiving with their families. And I just mourn for them and all who suffer as a result.
The president’s decision to say, ‘okay, this particular criminal who should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, who came in under an asylum that President Trump and his administration decided this past summer, that now we’re going to pause processes or asylum from 19 quote ‘third world countries’, we don’t know which ones they are. You shouldn’t paint with a broad brush. Go after a a criminal to the full extent of the law. But don’t say that all Afghans in the United States, those who served with our military and who lost their lives and their health and their families in many ways by doing so, don’t say that they’re all bad. Don’t say that people who come from ‘third world countries’ are bad. Virginia, about one out of nine of us, is an immigrant. and our immigrant communities in Virginia have been an enormous source of strength to our commonwealth and to our country. And it’s wrong to target them all for the bad actions of an individual, just like we wouldn’t target you target other communities in the United States for the bad actions of one individual.”
