Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) said Sunday that the U.S. strike on a Venezuelan boat sets “a precedent” that endangers Americans.
Trump announced the deaths of 11 Tren de Aragua cartel members on Tuesday, saying they were killed by a U.S. military strike. Lawmakers have expressed division over the strike, which Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro described as an “act of war.”
Duckworth is among the strike’s critics, calling it an “illegal move” by the Trump administration.
“There’s a thing called due process in this country, and that needed to have happened, and the fact that it happened in international waters actually opens Americans to a similar action by our adversaries,” Duckworth said on CBS’s Face the Nation.
“We were just talking about Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping and getting together and showing a show of force against the United States. Well, there’s nothing now to stop them from doing something like that against Americans in international waters, and it could be civilians,” Duckworth said.
Andrew “Art” Arthur, a former immigration judge and resident fellow in law and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies, told the Washington Examiner the strike is “partially” a message not to smuggle drugs. He added that it’s a message to “the Maduro government that relies on the drugs” that the United States will take military action if necessary.
SALENA ZITO SAYS STRIKE ON DRUG VESSEL IS ‘WHAT WE VOTED FOR’
Like Duckworth, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was critical of the strike, condemning Vice President JD Vance’s defense “to glorify killing someone without a trial” on X.
Following the strike, the Department of Defense urged caution toward Venezuela on Thursday after claiming two of its military aircraft flew near a Navy vessel, the USS Jason Dunham.