Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks didn’t mince words on Fox Report when she accused Democratic critics of “sowing doubt” and deliberately creating dissent around the Trump administration’s campaign to strike alleged drug-running vessels. She told viewers that undercutting the mission in public hearings and media spectacles only helps the cartels and demoralizes the men and women defending our ports and borders. Americans who want drugs off our streets should be asking why some elected officials always side with soft-on-crime rhetoric instead of supporting decisive action.
The strikes began in early September and have targeted suspected narcotics shipments in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, with the administration publicly reporting dozens of strikes and a growing death toll tied to the campaign. The White House and Pentagon say these operations are aimed at stopping the flow of deadly fentanyl and cartel trafficking that has ravaged American communities. Whether you cheer the results or demand more oversight, the facts show this is an escalation designed to protect American lives and sovereignty.
Of course the usual international outrage followed, with U.N. officials and left-leaning outlets denouncing the strikes and calling for investigations. The predictable chorus from global bureaucrats and coastal elites that values process over American lives is not a surprise, but it should be a wake-up call about who is really more worried about ideology than public safety. The choice for patriots is simple: secure the homeland or hand criminals the benefit of bureaucratic delay.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and White House officials have defended the operations as lawful and necessary, even as some in the press and on the Hill hunt for scandal and grandstand for headlines. Reports about internal debates and the fog of classified operations will be parsed by pundits and prosecutors alike, but the bottom line is that enforcing our laws and protecting our citizens is not a popularity contest. Washington’s elite should stop playing armchair general and start supporting real solutions that disrupt cartels, not protect them.
Let’s be honest: the American people are tired of the surrender caucus and the media’s eagerness to second-guess every move our military makes when it hits the right target. The administration’s stated goal—to choke off the supply lines that fuel addiction and violent crime at home—is exactly what Republicans promised to do and what hard-working Americans expect. If Democrats and their media allies prefer press conferences to protection, they should own the consequences when drugs flood our neighborhoods.
Democrats’ reflexive outrage is political theater that recklessly endangers service members and civilians alike by encouraging hesitation and political micromanagement of battlefield decisions. While calls for reasonable transparency are legitimate, the orchestrated campaign to “create dissent” during ongoing operations reads like a deliberate effort to tie the hands of commanders at sea. Our troops deserve clarity, not a victory lap for the enemies of law and order.
Congress should demand necessary briefings and accountability without turning every brief into a trial-by-television that exposes tactics and jeopardizes lives. Lawmakers can and should insist on oversight while also defending the president’s authority to act when our homeland is threatened by transnational criminal organizations. If Washington wants to be taken seriously on national security, it must back actions that secure Americans instead of undermining them for partisan gain.
Miller-Meeks also used the Fox appearance to highlight how the Trump administration is tackling the affordability crisis at home, reminding viewers that Republicans are focused on both security and economic relief for families. That dual focus—protecting Americans from foreign threats while fighting to lower costs at home—is exactly the pragmatic conservatism voters sent us to enact. If you’re tired of politicians who grandstand instead of govern, stand with leaders who put American lives and livelihoods first.
