Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) said there was “very grave concern in Congress” about the U.S. airstrikes on alleged drug boats off the coast of Venezuela.
Partial transcript as follows:
MARTHA RADDATZ: And Congressman, do you believe the videotape of that second strike should be released to the public?
TURNER: Well, I have not seen it yet. We’re going to be seeing it next week. I do believe that Congress has done very significant oversight. The joint chief — the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs both met with the leadership of the House and the Senate, the Intelligence Committee, the Armed Services Committee, all received briefings both from Admiral Bradley and the chairman, and the Secretary of Defense has spoken to them. They’ve all seen the video.
Now, the Full Armed Services Committee is going to be seeing the video. You’ve just heard the Chairman of the Intelligence Committee say that he himself has not concluded that it was an illegal act. So, and we all know that “The Washington Post” article has proven not to be accurate. So I think this oversight investigation is going to proceed. And as such, we’re going to certainly get to the bottom of both what occurred, what acts did occur, and as that investigation goes forward, Congress will have more information to be able to understand what occurred and how do we proceed next.
RADDATZ: And Congressman, quickly, if you can, we just have about 20 seconds, but these strikes, and this war on drugs comes as the president pardoned the former president of Honduras serving a 45-year sentence for his involvement in one of the largest and most violent drug trafficking conspiracies. Your reaction to that? What message are Americans supposed to take from that?
TURNER: Well, there is very grave concern in Congress about these strikes in general, and you just hit, you know, exactly why, because of the contrast. These individuals are not being subject to criminal prosecution. And if they were subject to criminal prosecution, there’s no capital punishment.
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