Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., issued a forceful rebuke of Democrats – and now even what he called complicit Republicans – for attempting to smear War Secretary Pete Hegseth over his execution of lawful lethal airstrikes on narco-terrorist drug boats in the Caribbean.
"And for their next act? — They want him tried for war crimes," Schmitt wrote Tuesday morning on X. "Yep — war crimes.
"They intend to prosecute another political opponent. They have lost it.
"Congressional Democrats are fueled by a radicalized Leftist base and are hellbent on power. The rules don't matter to them. At all.
"Sound familiar? Russiagate, Dem censorship, Covid tyranny, Dem weaponization of DOJ TO MY FELLOW REPUBLICANS: Understand this reality and never bend the knee to this [expletive deleted]. Fight back.
"The liberal media will never love you."
Tuesday's X post even drew the endorsement of Vice President JD Vance.
"Well said," Vance replied to Schmitt on X before the 2½-hour Cabinet meeting where Hegseth refuted Democrat and media allegations of "war crimes" related to second-tap strikes.
Schmitt, the former attorney general for Missouri with a deep legal background, rebuked the ongoing Democrats' obstruction attempts targeting the Trump administration with any legal attacks they can muster.
"A quick note on @SecWar," Schmitt's post began. "Democrats never wanted @PeteHegseth.
"He was and is a threat to permanent Washington's status quo. They didn't defeat the nomination and they tried hard. I saw all the behind the scenes craziness.
"He was their top target."
The smear attempts will not stop, Schmitt added, urging Republicans to not join the chorus.
"Since then there have been countless 'anonymous' leaks meant to undermine him and thwart President Trump and other Realists in the Administration," Schmitt continued.
"Bogus story after bogus story. It's the same tired playbook."
At the Cabinet meeting, Hegseth rejected allegations of killing surrendering drug boat strike survivors, describing it as a "fog of war" issue and asserting that the reports of survivors were being used as a weapon against the authorized, legal, lethal strikes ordered to put narco-terrorists "at the bottom of the ocean."
While some allege a double-tap strike on apparent survivors can constitute a "war crime," including Judge Andrew Napolitano on Newsmax, military law experts note authorizations of lethal strikes include the standing order of ensuring the "threat is eliminated" under the law of war, including the doctrine of "proportionate destruction of property that is relevant to the mission."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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