Tom Cotton Says U.S. Strikes On Alleged Drug Boat Were ‘Righteous’

The GOP senator claims it was “entirely lawful” that the U.S. military launched a follow-up strike to kill survivors of its first strike in the Sept. 2 attack.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said Thursday he was pleased with video footage he had just seen in a classified briefing that showed two survivors of a U.S. military strike on an alleged drug boat being killed in a follow-up strike, an incident that has alarmed lawmakers in both parties and sparked calls for investigations of potential war crimes or outright murder.

These were “righteous strikes,” Cotton, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters on Capitol Hill. He was one of several lawmakers briefed by Admiral Frank Bradley and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan Caine on the Sept. 2 boat strikes in the Caribbean, near Venezuela.

“The first strike, the second strike, and the third and the fourth strike on Sept. 2 were entirely lawful and needful and they were exactly what we would expect our military commanders to do,” he said.

Asked to describe what he saw in the footage of the second boat strike, Cotton chuckled.

“I saw two survivors trying to flip a boat ― loaded with drugs, bound for the United States ― back over, so they could stay in the fight,” he said. “And potentially, given all the context we heard, of other narcoterrorist boats in the area coming to their aid to recover their cargo and recover those narcoterrorists.”