Senate Democrats are slamming Republican counterparts over their exclusion from a White House briefing on the administration's strikes in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific.
Axios detailed that the White House briefed over a dozen Senate Republicans on the strikes, which have now killed over 60 people over more than a dozen attacks.
Sen. Mark Warner said the move was "indefensible and dangerous." "The administration must immediately provide to Democrats the same briefing and the OLC opinion justifying these strikes, as Secretary Rubio personally promised me that he would in a face-to-face meeting on Capitol Hill just last week," Warner said in a statement.
He was making reference to an alleged legal opinion from the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel, which reportedly produced a legal opinion justifying the strikes but was not shown to Democrats.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, on his end, did not know about the briefing and was not invited, a source familiar with the matter told the outlet.
Axios added that a bipartisan group of House lawmakers will receive a briefing from the Pentagon and the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Thursday.
Trump administration officials have said they have provided appropriate briefings and will continue to do so. However, some Republicans have been publicly demanding greater oversight of the campaign over the past days.
"I think we've got to be very careful when you're talking about ordering a kinetic strike," said Republican Senator Thom Tillis to The New York Times recently, while Republican Senator Susan Collins added that the Senate should "pass a resolution that either authorizes his force or prevents its use."
Senator James Lankford, Republican of Oklahoma told C-SPAN the White House "needs to give insight" to Congress, adding: "If this was happening, with this level of insight, under the Biden administration, I'd be apoplectic We're not his opponent on this, we are an ally in this to be able to solve it, but we need to be able to have a voice on it as a coequal branch"
We have oversight responsibilities, and we expect to get our questions answered," Senator Mike Rounds, a member of the Armed Services Committee, said in the same interview.
Libertarian Republican Senator Rand Paul has been among the sharpest critics, calling the strikes "extrajudicial killings" and saying that "no one said their name, no one said what evidence, no one said whether they're armed, and we've had no evidence presented."
Trump has brushed off the critics, recently telling Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during a roundtable: "Pete, you go to Congress, you tell them about it. What are they going to say, 'Gee, we don't want to stop drugs pouring in?'"
Politico noted that the White House the rhetoric will have support from the electorate as they cast the strikes as necessary for defense and national security. Moreover, most Republicans in Congress have also supported the actions, or at least are not opposing them in public. Senate Foreign Relations Chair James Risch saying has no plans "at this time" to hold the hearings. He told Axios he has been "briefed on it and feel comfortable with where we are."
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