US strikes another alleged drug boat amid firestorm on Capitol Hill
Democrat lawmakers are increasingly turning up the heat on the Trump administration over its series of military strikes on suspected drug -trafficking boats in the Caribbean since September, most recently focusing on alleged drug runners who survived an initial strike and were killed by a follow-up.
"If the reports are true, [Secretary of War] Pete Hegseth likely committed a war crime when he gave an illegal order that led to the killing of incapacitated survivors of the U.S. strike in the Caribbean," Nevada Democrat Sen. Sen. Jacky Rosen said in a statement earlier in December of strikes that killed suspected traffickers.
The White House told Fox News Digital on Friday that the Democrat criticism echoes the "Maryland Man" hoax, referring to the arrest of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an accused MS-13 gang member who was illegally residing in Maryland.
Abrego Garcia received an outpouring of support from Democrat lawmakers in March over his deportation to El Salvador, with lawmakers traveling to El Salvador to meet with him, and media outlets describing him as a "Maryland man."
EXPERT REVEALS WHAT IT WOULD TAKE FOR TRUMP TO DEPLOY TROOPS TO VENEZUELA: ‘POSSIBILITY OF ESCALATION’
President Donald Trump is greeted by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth before speaking to a gathering of top U.S. military commanders at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, in Quantico, Va. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
"’Innocent fisherman’ is the new ‘Maryland Man’ hoax – just like the media tried to paint MS-13 human smuggler Kilmar Abrego Garcia as ‘father of the year,’ they are now running cover for foreign terrorists smuggling deadly narcotics intended to murder Americans. President Trump is using every element of American power to take on the cartels and stop deadly drugs from flooding into our country – just like he promised on the campaign trail," White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Fox Digital.
Trump has long vowed to take on the ongoing opioid epidemic and stop foreign drugs and precursor chemicals from flowing into the U.S. The administration has defended the at least 22 strikes, which have killed dozens of suspected drug criminals, on suspected narco-boats as protecting the U.S. from cartels looking to "poison Americans."
Kilmar Abrego Garcia (R) and his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura (L) attend a prayer vigil before he enters a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office on August 25, 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland. ( Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
"These narco-terrorists are bringing drugs to our shores to poison Americans at home -- and they will not succeed," Hegseth wrote in a post on X in November . "The Department will treat them EXACTLY how we treated Al-Qaeda. We will continue to track them, map them, hunt them, and kill them."
Democrats have increasingly taken issue with a pair of strikes on Sept. 2 against an alleged drug boat from Venezuela. The White House confirmed the military carried out an initial strike on the boat before firing off a second that killed two suspected traffickers, sparking Democrats to claim the administration committed potential war crimes.
"You have two individuals in clear distress, without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel, who were killed by the United States," Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters earlier in December of the strikes.
While Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly shot back, "Going after survivors in the water, that is clearly not lawful."
Fox News Digital reached out to Kelly's and Himes' respective offices for comment on the White House statement and the opioid epidemic in the U.S., but did not immediately receive replies.
Rosen's office told Fox News Digital on Friday in response: "If Donald Trump is serious about fighting drug smuggling, why did he pardon the former President of Honduras who was convicted for smuggling hundreds of tons of cocaine ...
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