{"id":1317,"date":"2026-08-04T22:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T22:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=1317"},"modified":"2026-08-04T22:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T22:40:11","slug":"sen-tim-kaine-says-people-killed-by-trump-boat-strikes-are-murder-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=1317","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Tim Kaine Says People Killed by Trump Boat Strikes Are Murder Victims"},"content":{"rendered":"
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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.<\/p>\n

In a 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 \u201cis engaged in violent and fatal attacks against people far beyond those\u201d whom the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) said would be legitimate military targets.<\/p>\n

Kaine didn\u2019t go into detail about the OLC\u2019s classified legal opinion justifying the strikes, but he said the evidence he has gathered suggests the US \u201chas killed individuals who are not involved in narcotrafficking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are murder victims,\u201d Kaine emphasized.<\/p>\n

Kaine also pointed to a recent analysis conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration, first reported on by The Washington Post<\/em> last month, which found that the boat strike campaign \u201chas had no effect on the flow of illegal drugs into the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaine concluded his letter by urging Trump to \u201cclosely examine the circumstances of these strikes, to ensure that you are personally aware of the extent to which the leadership of the Department of Defense has exceeded your July 2025 directive, incurring massive expense and operating with dubious legality, and with no progress towards your stated objective.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd once you have done so,\u201d Kaine added, \u201cI urge you to halt this illegal, costly, and ineffective operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Despite Kaine\u2019s warnings, there is little sign that the administration is rethinking its boat strike campaign.<\/p>\n

US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) on Monday announced the formation of the Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere, a new command structure aimed specifically at combating international drug cartels.<\/p>\n

Journalist Juan Esteban Silva described the announcement of the task force as \u201cmajor shift\u201d in US security strategy that is putting \u201cColombia and Venezuela\u2026 at the center of the conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

An analysis published by The Diplomatic Insight <\/em>on Tuesday said the SOUTHCOM announcement \u201caligns with Trump administration\u2019s anti-narcotics campaign under a permanent command structure with expanded geographic reach, part of what the administration has described as a \u2018maximum pressure\u2019 policy against transnational criminal networks in the hemisphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

The analysis also noted that the new command structure replaces Joint Task Force Southern Spear, which has been responsible for carrying out boat strike operations in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump\u2019s Federal Trade Commission Is Threatening to Punish Big Tech for \u201cWoke AI\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 220 people have been killed in Trump\u2019s military campaign on boats in international waters since September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nSen. Tim Kaine Says People Killed by Trump Boat Strikes Are Murder Victims - Smart Moving Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=1317\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sen. 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