Democrats fume at Trump over sidelining on Venezuela strikes

WASHINGTON (CN) — Top Senate Democrats were furious Thursday after the Trump administration shut them out of a national security briefing during which officials shared a legal justification for recent strikes on supposed drug trafficking boats off the coast of Venezuela.

And while the White House has since held a similar, bipartisan briefing in the House, Democrats in the upper chamber decried the Republican-only Senate meeting as a major departure from national security norms and demanded that the administration release its legal rationale for the attacks to every lawmaker.

White House and Pentagon officials met with Republican senators on Wednesday to discuss the administration’s escalating strikes on boats in the Caribbean which President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have said targeted drug traffickers traveling to the U.S. from Venezuela.

During that meeting, apparently held without notifying Senate Democrats, officials shared with lawmakers a legal opinion drafted by the White House Office of Legal Counsel which provided justification for the strikes.

Sidelined Democrats were furious on Thursday after they learned — largely from reporters — of the closed-doors briefing.

Virginia Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a video message posted to X that the administration’s move to cut them out of the meeting was “indefensible.” And in a news conference Thursday afternoon, he fumed that the secret briefing trampled on norms dictating how the White House works with Congress on national security issues.

“Every day, a new boundary is broken, a new law is overridden, a classic procedure is ignored,” said Mark Warner. “But I think we hit a new low. When an administration decides it can pick and choose which elected representatives get the understanding of their legal argument of why military force is needed … it ignores all checks and balances.”

Warner slammed the Trump administration’s private briefing as “corrosive” to democracy and “downright dangerous” for U.S. national security. He pointed out that the White House not only cut Democrats out of the meeting but had also failed to share information about the Venezuela strikes with the “Gang of Eight,” a bipartisan group of House and Senate lawmakers who are traditionally briefed on intelligence matters.

“They shared it with one political party,” Warner fumed. “That is not how the system is supposed to work.”

The White House has since shared information on the Venezuela strikes with the Gang of Eight, and on Thursday Pentagon counternarcotics officials provided a separate briefing for both Democratic and Republican members of the House Armed Services Committee.

But Colorado Representative Jason Crow, who sits on the lower chamber’s armed services and intelligence panels, told reporters after the meeting that he was not satisfied with the White House’s rationale.

“I’m walking away without an understanding of how and why they’re making an assessment that the use of lethal force is adequate here,” said Crow.

The Colorado Democrat added that the House briefing focused on the “tactics” of the Venezuela boat strikes rather than strategy. “I heard no strategy, no endgame, no assessment of how they are going to end the flow of drugs into the United States … in fact, I have deeper concern leaving this briefing as to whether or not they even have a serious plan.”

Warner, meanwhile, called on the Trump administration to provide the Office of Legal Counsel’s opinion to every member of Congress, as well as what he described as the White House’s “secret target list” on which Republicans were briefed during the Wednesday meeting.

“Now that they have broken the seal, everybody needs to be read in,” he said.

Asked why the Office of Legal Counsel’s justification for the Venezuela strikes would need to remain classified, Warner was incredulous. “I have no freaking idea,” said the Virginia senator. “If you’ve got a valid legal opinion, wouldn’t you want to share it with every member?”

The Trump administration has for months conducted airstrikes on boats in the Caribbean, amid the president’s declaration that the U.S. is at war with Venezuelan drug traffickers. The strikes, which have killed 57 people so far, have drawn criticism from Democrats who have questioned their legality.

Lawmakers have also pointed out that it is difficult to confirm that the dozens of people killed in the attacks were indeed smuggling drugs into the U.S.

California Senator Adam Schiff and Virginia Senator Tim Kaine earlier this month sponsored a resolution aimed at halting the military strikes, calling them “plainly unconstitutional” and arguing that the administration has no authority to conduct such unilateral strikes without congressional approval.

The Senate blocked an attempt by Schiff and Kaine to bypass normal chamber rules and force a vote on the resolution.

Hegseth on Tuesday announced that the military had conducted a series of strikes on supposed drug boats, killing 14 people. Those latest attacks came just a week after the Pentagon said that it had tasked the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier to the Caribbean.

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