House Foreign Affairs Ranking Member Meeks Issues Statement Following Briefing with Secretaries Rubio & Hegseth

Washington, D.C. - Representative Gregory W. Meeks, Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, issued a statement following the committee's bipartisan classified briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on U.S. military strikes in the Western Hemisphere:

"Today's briefing from Secretaries Rubio and Hegseth was an exercise in futility. It did nothing to address the serious legal, strategic, and moral concerns surrounding the administration's unprecedented use of U.S. military force in the Caribbean and Pacific. As of today, the administration has already carried out 25 such strikes over three months, extrajudicially killing 95 people. That this briefing to Members of Congress only occurred more than three months since the strikes began - despite numerous requests for classified and public briefings - further proves these operations are unable to withstand scrutiny and lack a defensible legal rationale.

"It's clear to me that these lethal strikes are not about stopping drugs from entering the country. That stated objective simply does not square with Trump's recent decisions to pardon the former president of Honduras, who a jury found guilty for helping to smuggle 400 tons of cocaine into the country, or Ross Ulbricht, who ran an online drug marketplace. And to be clear, no fentanyl enters the United States over sea routes. The administration has made clear its real interest is in starting a regime change war with Venezuela and going after its oil. Both Rubio and Hegseth offered no evidence to Members today to contradict that this is the real motivation behind U.S. military activity in the Caribbean - and Trump's own chief of staff has now confirmed it publicly.

"Presidents are not kings, and no more wars should be launched without Congress' authorization. This week the House will vote on my War Powers Resolution to end these unsanctioned military strikes. I urge my colleagues across the aisle to listen to their constituents, who do not support these operations or provoking a war in our hemisphere, and vote to end this gross abuse of power."