Democrats Raise Concerns After Trump Officials Give Boat Strikes Briefing

Top administration officials sought during a briefing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to ease bipartisan concern about an expanding military campaign against suspected drug trafficking in the Caribbean and the Pacific, but Democrats said they still had no clear answers about the legal basis, scope or objective of the mission.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered the briefing on the eve of a Senate vote on Thursday on a measure that would curtail the president’s ability to take direct military action against Venezuela. It came as Democrats and Republicans have expressed mounting concern about the escalating military offensive, carried out without congressional authorization or consultation.

Pressed by lawmakers, the White House recently shared a classified memo with Congress that outlined the legal argument defending the operations. But Democrats said the justification was thin and set a dangerous precedent.

“There’s nothing that was said that changed my mind that they are making illegal strikes,” Representative Gregory W. Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, said in an interview after the closed-door meeting.

Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said the meeting did not include the “granularity” typical of Defense Department debriefs he has attended for similar operations, and lamented that lawmakers were not given a “strike-by-strike” breakdown.

And though Mr. Rubio and Mr. Hegseth tried to reassure lawmakers that the strikes were not a prelude to more direct attacks aimed at regime change in Venezuela, Democrats said the officials failed to provide answers on the policy strategy behind the strikes.