MS Now host Jonathan Capehart joined Friday’s PBS News Hour to discuss the fallout from the September 2 second strike on a drug boat. Showing a lack of understanding of how such operations work and counterexamples, Capehart demanded to know why the administration did not arrest the surviving crew members and falsely claimed there is no evidence that the boats are carrying drugs.
Host Geoff Bennett began by wondering, “So, Washington has been consumed this past week with a debate over a series of strikes that killed two survivors of an initial attack on a suspected Venezuelan drug boat back in September. And, Jonathan, the administration says that strike and others like it are necessary to protect U.S. interests. When you look at all that exists in the public realm right now, does that rationale withstand scrutiny?”
Capehart began by wondering if there was even any evidence for the strikes, “No, it doesn't. It would help if the president and the Defense Secretary, this administration, would show us the evidence. You keep saying that these people are drug runners. So — and you know who they are. So tell us. You keep saying that they are shipping these drugs, that's what's in those boats. Well, show us. Show us the evidence. But we don't have the evidence.”
Additionally, Capehart claimed, “The other thing is, those two people who were killed in that second strike, since then, there have been others and there have been survivors. If this is such a war on drugs to protect the American people, why aren't those survivors in U.S. federal custody and not repatriated to their countries? There are so many questions here that go well beyond what we have been talking about this week. And that's not to diminish the importance of why we're talking about this.”
On this specific strike, the survivors were killed because, according to Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley, they climbed back aboard a vessel that was still floating to continue their drug run and therefore a legitimate target. Second, on Capehart’s larger concern about repatriation, there have been instances where survivors of an attack on a submersible have been sent back to their countries. In one instance, Ecuador said it would not be prosecuting one of the survivors—Ecuadorian authorities claimed the crime did not take place in their territory—while Colombia announced it would prosecute the other. If the far-left president of Colombia thinks they are drug runners, that should be good enough for Capehart.
