On Friday’s broadcast of “CNN News Central,” Rep. Mark Alford (R-MO) responded to arguments that the United States should just let the Coast Guard interdict drug boats like it has done by saying that “they don’t have the same capabilities as other arms of the Department of Defense, including the capabilities in the sky” that are used in strikes to take things out and “U.S. Coast Guard will work in collaboration as we get closer” to the U.S.
Co-host Sara Sidner asked, “Our Kate Bolduan was talking to a member of JAG who said this is murder. But also said look, the Coast Guard has been doing this job for a very long time, why not just leave it to them? What do you say to that?”
Alford responded, “Well, the Coast Guard does have capabilities, but they don’t have the same capabilities as other arms of the Department of Defense, including the capabilities in the sky, which I won’t get into, that are used in these takeout strikes of narcoterrorists. And so, the U.S. Coast Guard will work in collaboration as we get closer to our home shores, but overseas and [in] international waters in particular, it’s going to be the Department of Defense under the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth.”
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