Sen. Tim Kaine Says People Killed by Trump Boat Strikes Are Murder Victims
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Sen. Tim Kaine on Monday accused the Trump administration of committing murder with its campaign of military strikes against purported drug trafficking vessels, which has killed at least 221 people since its launch in September 2025.
In a letter sent to President Donald Trump, Kaine (D-Va.) said that he reviewed classified notifications sent to Congress related to the boat strike campaign and concluded that the US “is engaged in violent and fatal attacks against people far beyond those” whom the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) said would be legitimate military targets.
Kaine didn’t go into detail about the OLC’s classified legal opinion justifying the strikes, but he said the evidence he has gathered suggests the US “has killed individuals who are not involved in narcotrafficking.”
“They are murder victims,” Kaine emphasized.
Kaine also pointed to a recent analysis conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration, first reported on by The Washington Post last month, which found that the boat strike campaign “has had no effect on the flow of illegal drugs into the United States.”
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