U.S. Senator Tom Cotton

Of all the Trump administration's military strikes against alleged Venezuelan drug boats in the Caribbean, the ones that are drawing the most intense scrutiny took place on September 2 — when a second strike was ordered against two people on the boat who survived a first strike. Critics of President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are arguing that the second strike was a blatant violation of Pentagon standards, which forbid carrying out such an attack after two survivors of a first strike have been rendered shipwrecked.

New York Times columnist David French, a Never Trump conservative, is arguing that the second strike constituted a "no quarter order" — which Pentagon rules forbid and is "an order directing soldiers to kill every combatant, including prisoners, the sick and the wounded."

Two lawmakers who have radically different views on the Trump administration's role in the events of September 2 are Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) — a Trump ally, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and chairman of the Senate Republican Conference — and Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), a ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee.

CBS News reporter Caitlin Huey-Burns lays out the contrasts between Cotton, who she interviewed, and Himes in a detailed thread posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday, December 4.

Describing a December 4 meeting, Huey-Burns explained, "GOP Sen. Cotton, intel chair, has a VERY (different) take than Himes: 'The first strike, the second strike, and the third and the fourth strike on September 2nd were entirely lawful and needful, and they were exactly what we'd expect our military commanders to do.'"

Huey-Burns reports, "I asked Cotton what he saw in the video: 'I saw 2 survivors trying to flip a boat loaded with drugs down for the US, back over so they could stay in the fight and potentially give them all the context we heard of other Narco terrorist boats in the area coming to their aid'…. More Cotton: '...to recover their cargo and recover those Narco terrorists. And just like you would blow up a boat off of Somali coast or the Yemeni coast, and you'd come back and strike it again if it still had terrorists and it still had explosives or missiles.'"

But Himes, in contrast, is vehemently critical of the Trump administration's Venezuela policy.

Huey-Burns reports, "'What I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I've seen in my time in public service,' Democratic Rep. Jim Himes, ranking member on House Intel, tells reporters…. More Himes, on what he says he saw in the briefing: 'You have two individuals in clear distress without any means of locomotion with a destroyed vessel who are killed by the United States.'"

The CBS News journalist also reports, "Himes on Pentagon's explanation of 2nd strike needed because the survivors were salvaging the drugs + in comms with other boats: 'They were not in the position to continue their mission in any way.'"

Read CBS News reporter Caitlin Huey-Burns' full thread on X at this link.