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Floor Speech

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Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, I thank my colleague Senator Merkley. I have spoken often on this matter on the floor the last few months, and I don't want to belabor a point that I previously made and that I am likely to make again next week when a War Powers Resolution is called forth. The timeliness of this is imminent. The news has just broken today that President Trump has ordered the seizure of an oil tanker-- not a drug-running boat, but an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela has been seized by the U.S. Coast Guard. Tensions are escalating, and the Senate is asleep on this matter.

I want to just ask this question: Why is this war different than all other wars? Why is this war different than all other wars? There are two significant differences that our colleagues need to grapple with. The first is the numerous warnings and indications from this floor but also from the U.S. military leadership and our allies that the war is illegal.

The chief legal advisor of Southern Command in August offered opinions before the boat strikes started in September that to do so without congressional authorization was illegal. The head of Southern Command Admiral Holsey, a decorated 30-plus-year veteran of the Navy, an admiral who was 1 year into a 3-year tenure as leader of the Southern Command, was forced to retire prematurely, and the reporting is consistent that he was forced to retire because he raised questions about the legality of these strikes.

This is not just Democrats on the floor of the Senate questioning the legality of this military operation; it is U.S. military leadership, including high-ranking Pentagon officials who are jeopardizing their career to stand in support of their oath and defend the Constitution and being relieved of command as a result.

Our primary ally in the world, the United Kingdom, has stopped sharing intelligence with the United States on activities in the region because they do not want their intelligence to be used to carry out illegal strikes.

The aftermath of the slaughter of survivors clinging to a shipwreck in international waters has occasioned huge concerns in this country. I represent one of the most military States in the Nation. Many Virginians are deployed on the carrier strike group in the Caribbean, and their families are asking us about the legality of the mission, how long it will last, what is it designed to accomplish, and they are also asking about why the United States, with a human rights ethos, would be proudly slaughtering survivors on the open seas.

The President has said that video could be available to all. Indeed, the President has made the video of the strike available on his social media account, bragging about it, patting himself on the back about it, but now that we are asking for the full video--not just the first strike but the second strike as well where survivors were slaughtered-- suddenly, the Secretary of Defense is walking it back and saying: We need to protect our sources and methods.

You need to protect your sources and methods when you have been turning it into a TV commercial, a social media commercial showing the world about what a tough guy you are. If you are a tough guy and you think you are proud of this, then let the American people see the entire video. Let them watch struggling survivors struck on the high seas in contravention of American and international laws of war.

That is the first reason this war is different from all other wars. The questions raised about their legality are a drumbeat that will not be denied or suppressed.

And the second reason, and then I will hand it to my other colleagues, that this war is different than all other wars is, with all of that that I have shared with you and so much more that I would like to share with you that I can't because what I know I know from being in a classified setting--get this, in the Senate of the United States, the greatest deliberative body in the world, 95 days into a war, has the Senate Armed Services Committee held a single public hearing about this war? Has the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a single public hearing about this war?

This war is different than all others because at 95 days and counting, 90 people killed, dozens of military strikes, seizing an oil tanker just a few hours ago, the principal committees in this body and in the House charged constitutionally with oversight over matters of war have been hiding their heads in the sand afraid to put on the table publicly before the American public what is at stake and the legal rationale.

If you are doing something you are proud of, you wouldn't need to hide it. If you are doing something you are proud of, you would be glad to have committee hearings and share the story with the American public.

The refusal of this body to take this matter up in any meaningful public forum and to shackle Members of the Senate who know a lot, but we cannot discuss it because all we know we know from classified settings, is a demonstration that this administration knows--knows-- that public scrutiny would make the American public ashamed of what is going on.

We need to make this public; we need to have this debate; and we need the American public to understand what is at stake.

And with that, I applaud my colleague for what he has introduced, and I would like to yield to my colleague from Maryland.

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