WATCH: Sen. Schiff Calls for Hegseth’s Resignation, Demands Accountability for Caribbean Boat Strikes on NBC’s Meet the Press

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) joined NBC's Meet the Press with Kristen Welker where he reiterated the unauthorized and illegal boat strikes are dragging the United States closer to war with Venezuela. Schiff called on the administration to publicly release the full video of the attack, emphasizing that he and his colleagues will call up a War Powers Resolution to force a debate and vote in Congress that would block the use of U.S. forces in hostilities against or within Venezuela if President Trump should follow through on his threat to strike Venezuela on land 'very soon.'

Schiff also called for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to be fired amid both his involvement in the boat strikes and killing survivors at sea, and the national security breaches that endangered our U.S. military through his use of the Signal messaging app to discuss sensitive national security information.

View the full interview here.

Key Excerpts:

On holding Defense Secretary Hegseth accountable for his actions in Signalgate and the boat strikes:

[…] [Hegseth] should be fired over this killing of these survivors at sea, and he should be fired for endangering our pilots. That Inspector General report made it clear that his actions in using this commercial app to Signal military strike plans ahead of those strikes endangered our pilots. It also endangered the success of the mission. That is more than enough reason to get rid of him. That kind of dangerous incompetence puts everyone at risk. His claim of exoneration is based on the fact that he has the authority to declassify information, and he is deeming it declassified because he went through this reckless step of texting it out on Signal to a journalist and family members and others. But the threat to our service members and to the mission remained whatever you call it. That material was classified before he sent it out, and I think it was classified when he did. So, there needs to be some accountability, or other people are going to be put in harm's way.

On the administration dragging the country close to war through unauthorized and illegal strikes:

[…] They're unlawful. They're unconstitutional, and killing two people who are shipwrecked at sea is also morally repugnant. I agree with Tom, we should do everything lawfully that we can to stop the scourge of drugs coming into this country. But this is not at all lawful or constitutional. And frankly, if the Pentagon and our defense secretary is so proud of what they're doing, let the American people see that video. Let the American people see two people standing on a capsized boat or sitting on a capsized boat and deliberately killed and decide for themselves whether they're proud of what the country is doing. I can't imagine people will be proud of that.

And as you pointed out, the manual on the law of war makes it explicit that killing people who are shipwrecked is illegal, is a violation of law. And the most troubling thing I heard from Senator Cotton was when he said it really didn't matter what these people were doing on that capsized boat, whether they were signaling their distress and asking for rescue, or what they were doing. It does matter. It does matter.

And one point I would share with him, and that is I also think that all of these strikes are unlawful. They're a form of extrajudicial killing. These boats are not invading the United States in an armed assault. They are thousands of miles away. Some of them, maybe even this vessel -if reports are accurate - wasn't even heading to the United States. And for us to be engaged in this kind of unauthorized campaign of extrajudicial killing couldn't be, I think, a more clear violation of the law.

[…]

The American people don't want to go to war with Venezuela. And yes, we should be interdicting people bringing drugs in this country. We should be prosecuting them. We shouldn't be simply killing people at sea who are not even coming to this country.

On his War Powers Resolution receiving bipartisan support to force a debate and vote should the president follow through on his threat to strike Venezuela on land 'very soon:'

[…] We had two Republicans vote with us. Tim Kaine and I and Rand Paul have introduced the last couple resolutions. This is now the third resolution, and that number may grow as people watch what has just taken place and are appalled by it. One of the reasons that we began introducing these resolutions is we wanted to protect our troops who might be put in harm's way, but we also wanted to protect them, not just from physical harm, but from legal harm. And now we have everyone in the chain of command that carried out this strike on these shipwrecked people potentially facing legal liability. That is not good for our country. It's not good for our servicemembers. So, I think the support for these resolutions is likely to grow, and it will grow further if the president follows through and actually releases this video to the American people. Because I think the clamor that will cause, will force my colleagues to support an end to these strikes.

On the administration's attempts to justify their claims of lawful boat strikes:

[…] It's been reported that the admiral in charge of Southern Command left that command, potentially over concerns about these strikes. The top lawyer in that command may have been fired or forced to resign. So, it all depends on whether you bring in a lawyer to simply tell you what you want to hear. We have seen Inspector Generals pushed out. We've seen lawyers pushed out, top military lawyers pushed out. So, you can always find a lawyer to give you the advice you want to hear. That doesn't make it the right legal advice. And having read that Office of Legal Counsel opinion that is still classified, I can say in the most general of terms that it looks like one strained legal argument piled on another strained legal argument piled on another.

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