Congressional lawmakers emerged from a classified Pentagon briefing Thursday, bitterly divided along partisan lines about whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s follow-up strike targeting drug boat survivors constituted a war crime or legitimate military action against narco-terrorists attempting to salvage their cargo. GOP Sen. Tom Cotton called the strikes “entirely lawful and needful,” and described seeing “two survivors trying to flip a boat, loaded with drugs bound for the United States, back over so they could stay in the fight”.
However, Democratic Representative Adam Smith, ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, characterized Cotton’s assessment as “patently ridiculous,” stating “That’s not true. Gosh, Admiral Bradley didn’t even pretend that that was the case. There was no way they were turning this boat back over. The boat was completely disabled”. In describing the video to Collins, Smith said the boat appeared to be split in half and that the two individuals weren’t signaling to anybody.
The classified briefing with Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley, who oversaw the September 2 strike, included video evidence showing the moments before and after the follow-up attack that killed two survivors clinging to wreckage in the Caribbean Sea. The starkly divergent interpretations of identical footage demonstrate how deeply partisan politics have infected even military operations where objective reality should be apparent.
Conservative policy analysts note that Cotton’s characterization aligns with the administration’s legal theory that drug traffickers designated as terrorists remain legitimate targets even after their vessel is disabled. The Arkansas Republican and Senate Intelligence Committee chairman argued that survivors attempting to preserve narcotics cargo for later retrieval justify continued engagement under rules of engagement governing counter-terrorism operations.
However, progressive lawmakers characterized the follow-up strike as execution of incapacitated individuals unable to threaten American forces. Pentagon leaders briefed lawmakers on U.S. boat strikes, fueling debate over legality, with the classified session failing to produce consensus about whether the operation complied with international humanitarian law.
The FBI announced Thursday a major breakthrough in the four-year investigation into pipe bombs planted near the Democratic and Republican National Committee headquarters on January 5, 2021. Federal agents have arrested a suspect identified as Brian Cole they are alleging placed two pipe bombs, which never exploded, the night before the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack.
The man authorities say is responsible for placing two pipe bombs near the U.S. Capitol complex in 2021 told investigators he believed conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was stolen from then-President Trump, according to a person familiar with the investigation. Cole spoke to investigators after his arrest at his home in Woodbridge, Va., that he shares with his mother and other family members, about 30 miles from Washington.
Attorney General Pam Bondi celebrated the arrest during a press conference alongside FBI Director Kash Patel, stating “We are working every day to restore the public’s trust. We are hoping today is a significant step toward that progress”. FBI Director Patel said, adding that the suspect will still have his day in court, “We solved it”.
The FBI affidavit said Cole purchased components that could have been used to make the pipe bombs, including electrical wire, steel wool, battery connectors and parts to close the end of a pipe. Court papers also say a cell phone tied to Cole pinged cell towers near the RNC and DNC the night the bombs were placed. And a license plate reader near the area captured his car, a Nissan Sentra, that evening.
“This case involved millions of pieces of data, and it is a huge win, because it was like finding a needle in a haystack,” said Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. Pirro noted that investigators examined 233,000 purchases of black end caps of the type used to make the bombs.
The Trump administration intensified its immigration crackdown Thursday with new restrictions on work permits for refugees and asylum seekers. The Trump administration on Thursday said it would reduce the period of time that work permits are valid for refugees, asylees and other immigrants granted legal protections in the U.S., its latest move to tighten immigration procedures.
Under the new rules, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said it will issue work permits to these populations that last for a maximum of 18 months, instead of the current 5-year period. The policy change applies to immigrants with pending applications for asylum or permanent residency, processes that usually take years to complete because of massive case backlogs.
ICE operations targeting Somali immigrants are underway in the Twin Cities, with enhanced action coming a day after President Trump said, “I don’t want [Somalis] in our country”. Last week, in a Thanksgiving post where he also called Gov. Tim Walz a slur for people with intellectual disabilities, Mr. Trump said Somali refugees are “completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota”.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called President Trump’s xenophobic statements about the Somali community “vile, racist lies and slander towards our fellow Minnesotans”. Walz stated that “Donald Trump’s calling our Somali neighbors garbage and the state of Minnesota hellhole I’m assuming is unprecedented for a United States president,” adding “We’ve got little children going to school today who their president called them garbage.”
More than 80% of the immigrants arrested in D.C. during the surge in federal law enforcement this year had no prior criminal record, newly released federal data shows, even though that crackdown was portrayed as targeting violent crime. The Washington Post analysis undermines Trump administration claims that immigration enforcement operations prioritize dangerous criminals rather than targeting immigrants based on national origin or other factors unrelated to public safety.
Conservative immigration hawks dismiss concerns about targeting non-criminals, arguing that all illegal aliens violate immigration law regardless of whether they commit additional crimes after entering the country unlawfully. The administration’s position holds that any foreign national without legal status represents legitimate enforcement priority, making criminal history irrelevant to deportation decisions.
Trump administration plans to impose a 107% tariff on Italian pasta imports, effectively making doing business in the U.S. too costly according to producers and likely causing them they say to pull out of the market as soon as January. The punitive duties represent dramatic escalation in Trump’s trade war with European Union members, with Americans’ most loved Italian food staple potentially doubling in price or disappearing from supermarket shelves.
Ukraine faces a corruption scandal as it tries to negotiate an end to the war that Russia started, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stating “Today, Ukrainian representatives will continue talks in the United States with President Trump’s team. Our task now is to obtain full information about what was said in Russia, what other reasons Putin found to prolong the war and put pressure on Ukraine, on us, on our independence”.
A US delegation led by special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss the US proposal to end the war, but the talks failed to yield a breakthrough. Zelensky said his country was “ready for any scenario” amid the fresh negotiations, stating that “Only a dignified peace means real security, and we are fully aware that this requires the support of our partners now and in the future.”
The partisan divide over boat strikes threatens to undermine bipartisan consensus that drug trafficking represents serious national security threat justifying aggressive counter-measures. Democrats’ characterization of legitimate military operations as war crimes creates political incentive for Republicans to dismiss even genuine concerns about rules of engagement violations, while GOP reflexive defense of Trump administration tactics prevents serious oversight of potentially problematic orders.
As congressional committees continue reviewing classified evidence from the September 2 operation, the question facing Washington is whether objective assessment of video footage can overcome partisan interpretations driven by political calculations rather than legal analysis. The answer will determine whether legitimate oversight constrains future operations or whether boat strikes escalate without meaningful accountability from Congress unwilling to challenge Trump’s counter-narcotics strategy regardless of international law concerns.
