Top Intel Democrat rips Trump administration over exclusion from boat strike briefing

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration’s increasing efforts to exclude Democrats from national security briefings could endanger troops and keep important information from the public, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee warned Thursday.

“I don’t know how you even begin to rebuild trust,” Virginia Sen. Mark Warner said after Democrats were not invited to a briefing this week on U.S. military strikes against boats alleged to be carrying drugs. “This is against every norm of how national security policy has worked.”

Every senator should be read in, Warner said, and “when you politicize decision making about putting service members in harm’s way, you make them less safe.”

Lawmakers in both parties have had questions about the American strikes on boats in the waters off South America — 14 strikes so far, killing 61 people — and the legal justification for them, given that Congress has not authorized military action. President Donald Trump’s administration also has been building up an unusually large force of warships in the region, fueling speculation that the moves are aimed at ousting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Senate to vote on war powers

The Senate could have a say next week with an expected vote on a war powers resolution forced by Democrats that would prohibit strikes in or near Venezuela, unless Congress approves. Several Republicans who are considered potential swing votes in favor of that resolution were part of the briefing this week.

One of those Republican senators, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, said he had requested the briefing along with others. He said it helped ease some of his concerns, but that he’s going to “continue to look at” the resolution.

Tillis said that he saw nothing wrong with Republicans having their own briefing since the issue has become “politicized.” But Democrats “should be entitled to a briefing” as well, Tillis said.

Democrats shut out

Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham also said Democrats should hear from the administration. Asked if he’s worried about the precedent being set by excluding them, Graham responded that “they’ll get briefed.”

Warner said that is “bull—–.”

“Somebody needs to be held accountable for this,” he said. “Some ‘oops’ makeup session doesn’t cut it.”

Warner has criticized the Trump administration for months as military and intelligence officials have increasingly moved away from the long tradition of bipartisan briefings in the Capitol and cracked down on access to national security information.

Trump officials only called Republicans in Congress, not Democrats, before launching strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities earlier this year. They also canceled a routine classified meeting that Warner had scheduled with career intelligence staffers at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency after it was criticized by Laura Loomer, a far-right conspiracy theorist.

Erosion of bipartisanship

National security committees in Congress have long been among the most bipartisan, and lawmakers in both parties have fiercely guarded their access to information since power can switch quickly in Washington. But Warner directly criticized his Republican colleagues for their “blind loyalty” to Trump and not speaking up.

“Somebody should have walked out of the meeting,” Warner said.

South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, another Republican who attended the briefing, said he did not know until he arrived that it would be partisan. He said he received a phone call from the White House on Thursday morning inquiring about whether he had concerns.

“I said, ‘Yup.’ Because Intel and Armed Services, we do things on a bipartisan basis when it comes to this, we want to keep it that way,” Rounds said.

The administration held a separate classified briefing for the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday that did include Democrats. But Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, who attended the meeting, said that the Pentagon pulled its lawyers with no notice. The lawyers were “the exact people who would supply a legal justification for these strikes,” Moulton posted on X.

Lawmakers question attacks

Trump has justified the attacks on the boats as necessary to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and asserted the U.S. is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.

The administration says it is relying on the same legal authority used by the Bush administration when it declared a war on terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But lawmakers have said they want more detail about that rationale as the pace of the attacks has increased.

Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Democrats being excluded from the briefing was “very poor judgment.”

“It goes to the mindset of this administration that they don’t have to deal with Congress unless there’s an emergency and that’s usually trying to rally the Republicans,” Reed said.

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Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Konstantin Toropin contributed to this report.