WASHINGTON — Lawmakers from both parties criticized the Trump administration after Democrats were not invited to a briefing Wednesday on U.S. military strikes on alleged drug-carrying boats.
Sen. Mark Warner, of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, told reporters at a news conference in the Capitol on Thursday that the partisan briefing was a “new low” for the administration.
“That is not how the system is supposed to work,” he said.
The Trump administration has launched at least 14 strikes on vessels that it claims were involved with drug trafficking since early September. Calls for transparency into the strikes from members of Congress, including allies of Trump, have grown in recent weeks.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Democrats have “been denied essential information about these airstrikes. From everything we have been told, there are very severe questions about the legality of these strikes.”
Several Republican senators told NBC News that Democrats should have been included in the meeting.
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said that it was “an unfortunate situation” that Democrats were not briefed but that he believed they would be included in future briefings.
“I wish it wouldn’t have happened this way,” he said. “It did, but I’ve talked to a number of my colleagues already and told them that we still agree that this should be delivered on a bipartisan basis.”
Rounds also said that based on the briefing, he believes the strikes were legal.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., also said Democrats should have been briefed.
“I don’t think any administration should leave out any party from a briefing that level of importance,” he said, adding, “I think all of that should be available to people who oversee them.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a close ally of Trump’s, said that it “wouldn’t be appropriate” for Democrats not to be briefed and that “the goal is to brief everybody, not just Republicans.”
Warner said he was incensed to learn that the administration shared its legal justification for the strikes during the briefing, since Secretary of State Marco Rubio had “personally promised” him that information would be shared with the bipartisan Gang of 8, which still has not happened yet.
Asked by NBC News whether he got an explanation for why Democrats were excluded, Warner said: “We got a ham-handed ‘Oh, maybe you’re right.’ … I say bulls—.”
The White House accused Democrats of “pushing bogus claims about the administration’s efforts to kill narcoterrorists to distract from their decision to shut the government down and force federal employees and military servicemembers to work without pay.”
“The Department of War has held nine bipartisan briefings on narcoterrorist strikes, with additional bipartisan briefings s