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LOADINGERROR LOADING Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) on Wednesday excoriated President Donald Trump for “illegally” striking the boats of merely suspected drug-runners in Pacific and Caribbean waters, and warned supporters that it sets a dire precedent they might not appreciate in the future. Himes appeared on MSNBC’s “Chris Jansing Reports” to discuss the controversial strikes, which began in early September and have killed at least 57 people that the Trump administration maintains were all trying to smuggle narcotics such as fentanyl into the U.S. Advertisement Jansing played a clip Wednesday of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) claiming earlier in the day that most Americans support Trump in these strikes. The conservative also rebuked Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) on Monday for calling them “sanctioned murder.” “If Lindsey Graham and other Republicans want to go the route of saying, ‘It’s OK to kill people illegally, just so long as the American public supports it,’ the American public needs to really think that through,” said Himes. “There will be a Democratic president someday.” He continued, “And all my MAGA friends who are cheering on these illegal killings need to imagine who gets killed when President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says that it doesn’t matter what the law says, she’s going to do what she’s going to do.” Advertisement The Connecticut Democrat has joined a burgeoning chorus with his criticism, which was clearly aimed at the pro-Trump nature of support for the strikes — and not at Ocasio-Cortez. While they didn’t use a hypothetical future president to make their case, Atlantic writer Tom Nichols and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) have both condemned the strikes as dangerously “unconstrained” and plainly described them as illegal “summary execution.” The use of a hypothetical has ultimately already worked however, as Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) recently admitted on the C-SPAN’s “Ceasefire” podcast that he would be “apoplectic” if former President Joe Biden had authorized the strikes. Advertisement “I work here, so I understand the complete abnegation of principle and a complete thumbing of the nose at the rule of law, but I would hope that people like Lindsey Graham might not go that path, because it’s a very, very dangerous path for this country to go down,” Himes said Wednesday. Forget BallroomsHelp Build aNewsroom Your SupportFuelsOur Mission Your SupportFuelsOur Mission Become a HuffPost Member When power gathers under golden ceilings, real journalism stands outside, asking the questions that matter. Join HuffPost Membership and keep independent reporting strong for everyone. We remain committed to providing you with the unflinching, fact-based journalism everyone deserves. Thank you again for your support along the way. We’re truly grateful for readers like you! Your initial support helped get us here and bolstered our newsroom, which kept us strong during uncertain times. Now as we continue, we need your help more than ever. We hope you will join us once again. We remain committed to providing you with the unflinching, fact-based journalism everyone deserves. Thank you again for your support along the way. We’re truly grateful for readers like you! Your initial support helped get us here and bolstered our newsroom, which kept us strong during uncertain times. Now as we continue, we need your help more than ever. We hope you will join us once again. Support HuffPost Already a member? Log in to hide these messages. Himes also offered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth an education on the deadly strikes. He said, “They have not been authorized by the Congress, and even if because you’re Pete Hegseth and you get really jazzed up on the testosterone rush that comes from blowing up a boat with a couple of guys on it, that is not the way you’re going to interdict drugs.” Advertisement “Drugs come largely, certainly fentanyl — which is responsible for the vast majority of deaths in this country — out of Mexico, from the cartels there,” Himes continued. “There is cocaine coming out of Colombia, not so much Venezuela, so what we see there is massive numbers of military assets deployed for purely performative reasons.”
