(NewsNation) — The Washington Democrat who is the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee is pushing back on a Republican senator’s assertion that two survivors of a U.S. military strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean were prepared to right their vessel and continue on their mission before a second strike finished them off.
“They weren’t trying to flip the boat back over and get into the fight. They were simply sitting on the boat trying to survive,” Rep. Adam Smith told “The Hill” on Thursday after he and other lawmakers were briefed by Navy Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley and shown video of the Sept. 2 attack.
The military action is one of several lethal strikes on boats the Trump administration says are carrying illegal drugs bound for the U.S. This particular strike has gained notoriety after news reports suggested military leaders may have knowingly killed helpless survivors, which could constitute a war crime.
Reactions Thursday fell largely along party lines, with Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., characterizing the Sept. 2 strikes as “righteous.” He argued, based on his interpretation of evidence, that the two survivors were “trying to flip their boat back over and continue on their mission.”
Smith said Bradley told lawmakers that the rationale for the second Sept. 2 strike was that military officials could not determine whether the suspected drugs were destroyed.
“The first strike set the boat on fire, flipped it over … only the bow was sticking up. There was no way to tell that there were any drugs left there — and quite a few reasons to conclude that there weren’t,” the Democrat said. “But that was the basis for the strike, not that they were trying to right … the boat and go on their merry way.”