For a party that’s spent the last decade branding itself as the anti-police, pro-Hamas, pro-illegal-criminal- alien caucus, Democrats have now found a brand-new hill to die on: defending foreign drug runners from getting blown out of the water.
Yes, really.
U.S. forces have targeted Venezuelan narco-traffickers in boats since September – the same boats that are used to pump drugs into the United States and other countries. But the Democrats aren’t cheering the takedowns. They aren’t applauding the interdictions. No, instead they are getting the vapors because Secretary of War Peter Hegseth said the quiet part out loud: drug boats are getting stopped fast, and sometimes that requires something more persuasive than a friendly Coast Guard wave. In other words: KABLOOEY!
And… oh no! When there were some survivors on a drug boat, the boat got bombed again. How sad (insert sarcasm here). And the Democrats think that’s a “war crime.”
Democratic Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, who appears to be a vocal supporter of Venezuelan drug runners staying alive as are numerous Democrats. But the Dems sat silently when the Biden administration droned kids [1] in Afghanistan and also American citizens [2] under Obama. And who knows if all of those Democratic-led drone strikes were successful the first time around or if Biden and Obama had to chase them around again to blow them up.
However, Kelly and the Dems have discovered their moral outrage now. And it’s directed not at terrorists or cartel smugglers, but at President Trump and Pete Hegseth. According to Kelly and friends, defending America from drug runners is somehow more scandalous than blowing up U.S. citizens without a trial (which Obama literally did).
Here’s the thing though – and there’s always a thing. According to a piece from American Thinker [3], the drug runners on the boats don’t get any kind of special protection. They are stateless vessels. They are not warships that fall under Geneva Convention rules. According to the article, “The laws of a country extend 12 miles out from its shores. All vessels within that limit are subject to that country’s jurisdiction. Beyond that limit all vessels must fly the flag under whose jurisdiction they are sailing. Someone committing a crime in international waters is subject to the laws of the country under whose flag he is sailing. In addition, that country is responsible for the actions of a vessel flying its flag.”
That is not the situation here.
I’ve taught the Laws of Armed Conflict to U.S. and mult. allied troops. It’s comical to have online experts inform me:
The Laws of War do not apply to killing terrorists because Congress didn’t declare war
WRONG
You can’t make a 2nd strike at a boat you’re sinking because there… pic.twitter.com/U7Nsi65oi9 [4]— Jim Hanson (@JimHansonDC) December 2, 2025 [5]
In the end, this drama coming from the Democrats is just another weekly fake scandal that they have dredged up in their anti-Trump hysteria. Democrats won’t defend cops, won’t defend Israel, won’t defend the border… but they’ll defend Venezuelan drug runners. Why is this not surprising? It’s not surprising because their only “go-to” strategy on any given day is to be against anything Trump is doing. TDS will do that to you and they’ve got an extreme case of it.