Senate vote tests Trump's authority to strike vessels he says are carrying drugs

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate was voting Wednesday on legislation to put a check on President Donald Trump's ability to use deadly military force against drug cartels, as Democrats and at least one Republican tried to counter the administration's extraordinary assertion of presidential war powers to destroy vessels in the Caribbean.

It was the first vote in Congress on Trump's military campaign, which according to the White House has so far destroyed four vessels in the Caribbean, killed at least 21 people and stopped narcotics from reaching the U.S. The war powers resolution would require the president to seek authorization from Congress before further military strikes on the cartels.

The Trump administration has asserted that drug traffickers are armed combatants threatening the United States, creating justification to use military force. But that assertion has been met with some unease on Capitol Hill.

Some Republicans are asking the White House for more clarification on its legal justification and specifics on how the strikes are conducted, while Democrats insist they are violations of U.S. and international law. It's a clash that could redefine how the world's most powerful military uses lethal force and set the tone for future global conflict.

The White House has already indicated Trump would veto the legislation, and the Senate vote Wednesday was not expected to succeed, but it provided lawmakers an opportunity to go on the record with their objections to Trump's declaration that the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels.

“It sends a message when a significant number of legislators say, ‘Hey, this is a bad idea,'" said Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat who pushed the resolution alongside Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California.

Wednesday's vote was being brought under the War Powers Resolution of 1973, which was intended to reassert congressional power over the declaration of war. The legislation would bar the Trump administration from using military strikes against vessels in the Caribbean Sea unless Congress specifically authorizes it.

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has long advocated for greater congressional power over war powers, was the lone Republican to support the legislation ahead of the vote, though Schiff and Kaine said others had expressed interest. A number of GOP senators have questioned the strikes on vessels and said they are not receiving enough information from the administration.

“Congress must not allow the executive branch to become judge, jury and executioner,” Paul said in a floor speech.

Sen. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, acknowledged “there may be some concern” in the Republican conference about the strikes. However, Sen. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican who like Cramer is on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he did not expect many Republicans to vote for the resolution.

“I'm going to vote no when the president is exercising his constitutional responsibility,” Rounds said.

Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee received a classified briefing last week on the strikes, and Cramer said he was “comfortable with at least the plausibility of their legal argument.” But he added that no one representing intelligence agencies or the military command structure for Central and South America was present for the briefing.

“I’d be more comfortable defending the administration if they shared the information,” he said.

Kaine also said the briefing did not include any information on why the military chose to destroy the vessels rather than interdict them or get into the specifics of how the military was so confident that the vessels were carrying drugs.

“Maybe they were engaged in human trafficking, or maybe it was the wrong ship,” Schiff said. “We just have little or no information about who was onboard these ships or what intelligence was used or what the rationale was and how certain we could be that everyone on that ship deserved to die.”

The Democrats also said the administration has told them it is adding cartels to a list of organizations deemed “narco-terrorists” that are targets for military strikes, but it has not shown the lawmakers a full list.

“The slow erosion of congressional oversight is not an abstract debate about process,” Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a floor speech. “It is a real and present threat to our democracy.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited the Republican Conference for lunch Wednesday to emphasize to senators that they should vote against the legislation. He told the senators that the administration was treating cartels like governmental entities because they have seized control of large portions of some Caribbean nations, according to Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota.

“These drug trafficking organizations are a direct threat to the safety and security of the United States to unleash violence and criminality on our streets, fueled by the drugs and the drug profits that they make,” Rubio told reporters at the Capitol. “And the president is the commander in chief, has an obligation to keep our country safe.”

Still, Democrats said the recent buildup of U.S. maritime forces in the Caribbean was a sign of shifting U.S. priorities and tactics that could have grave repercussions. They worried that further military strikes could set off a conflict with Venezuela and argued that Congress should be actively deliberating whenever American troops are sent to war.

Schiff said, “This is the kind of thing that leads a country, unexpectedly and unintentionally, into war.”

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Associated Press writer Lisa Mascaro contributed.