Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrives for a secure briefing with lawmakers and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on November 5, 2025 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth briefed a group of top congressional members behind closed doors on Wednesday following President Trump’s orders for a wave of unprecedented U.S. military strikes against alleged drug boats that are raising the specter of a new war.
Legal analysts have broadly described the strikes as illegal under both U.S. and international law — in part because they have not been authorized by Congress.
Trump officials invited a dozen members of Congress, including Republican and Democratic leaders and the top lawmakers on intelligence and armed services committees in both chambers. A growing bipartisan group of lawmakers have submitted months of demands for more information on the attacks.
Since the strikes began in September, at least 66 have been killed in 16 strikes in the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean, according to the administration. Trump said last month he approved covert operations in Venezuela, which was followed by orders to send a surge of U.S. naval forces to the waters off South America. Pentagon officials said the country’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford, and its strike group, which marks 20% of the Navy’s deployed warships is now headed for the region.
On Tuesday, the White House disputed claims it wasn’t being transparent enough with Congress regarding the strikes and military buildup in the region. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the meeting is a top example of their cooperation and said his appearance marks the ninth briefing so far.
“The president made it very clear if senators want to understand the administration’s operations against narco-drug traffickers, we are very happy to speak with them about that,” she said.
Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho, agreed.
“The administration has kept me and other members fully advised, fully satisfied with what they’re doing,” Risch said after Wednesday’s briefing.
However, several Democrats complained that earlier congressional briefings were limited in scope and key information was only shared with Republicans.
Last week, top Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, criticized Trump administration officials for holding a closed-door briefing with about a dozen GOP Senators — and no Democrats. Warner said someone should be “fired” for the oversight.
“We hit a new low, what the administration did in the last 24 hours is corrosive not only to our Democracy but downright dangerous for our national security,” Warner, D-Va., said.
After Wednesday’s meeting, Warner said he remains perplexed why the U.S. has upended its drug interdiction program that allows the Coast Guard to instead detain suspected drug vessels and pursue criminal charges after obtaining evidence.
“Showing by interdiction, and drug recovery, and … that the individuals on the boats are known narco-terrorists would sure go a long way in convincing Americans and for that matter, the rest of the world,” Warner, D-Va., said.
Top House Intelligence Committee Democrat Jim Himes said while there’s high confidence in U.S. intelligence providing information on targets, he remains worried some of those killed are not who the administration claims and other information gaps. Himes said at least now, the administration is starting to share information.
“In my world and the intelligence world, when something is done, we get a great deal of detail on every operation. That has not been shared,” Himes, D-Conn., said. “Finally they’ve started to notify Congress of this stuff, until basically ten days ago we had nothing.”
He said the administration has finally shared their legal defense for the strikes at sea, and some additional information on military operations.
“But don’t misunderstand me, lots of mistakes could get made,” he added. “But they are applying the eyes and ears of our intelligence community to these boats.”
Wednesday’s meeting marked the first time Rubio and Hegseth briefed top lawmakers on the strikes since they began more than two months ago. During this time, members have complained they did not have a legal basis for Trump’s orders for the attacks, access to a secret list of targets or broader information on evidence recovered and identities of those killed.
A small bipartisan group of lawmakers intends to force a vote to block Trump’s use of military forces to engage in hostilities within or against Venezuela. Behind closed doors, Trump officials have been lobbying Republicans to vote no.
Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Adam Schiff, D-Calif., introduced the war powers resolution after Trump said he was entertaining the possibility of military strikes inside Venezuela. They argue that — as laid out clearly by the Constitution — Congress retains the authority to declare war, not the president.
An earlier vote to limit the strikes in the Caribbean failed. Two Republicans, Paul and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, joined Democrats in the 48-51 vote. However, Kaine argued this new vote has a shot at passage, reflecting the earlier resolution’s focus on the Caribbean turned off some members and this resolution is more clear cut.
