Sen. Markwayne Mullin forcefully defended the use of U.S. military power against drug cartels, arguing that the current controversy ignores years of precedent and understates the scale of violence cartels have inflicted on Americans.
Mullin’s remarks came amid debate over whether the United States should treat powerful drug cartels operating in the Western Hemisphere as terrorist organizations and whether the president has the authority to act militarily against them.
Mullin compared the current backlash to the relative lack of outrage during prior administrations, particularly under former President Barack Obama.
“ridiculous that we’re having this conversation,” Mullin said.
“Because underneath Obama, he had 500 strikes. 3700 different individuals were killed. There wasn’t a big show about this.”
Mullin said critics are focusing on geography rather than substance, arguing that drug cartels meet the same criteria as terrorist organizations the United States has targeted overseas for decades.
“What you guys are all upset about is the hemisphere that’s working in the hemisphere is these are drug terrorist organizations,” Mullin said.
“The same people that Obama went after, some people we’ve been over for the last 24 years were terrorist organizations that were wanting to kill Americans.”
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According to Mullin, drug cartels have been operating for decades and are directly responsible for widespread death and destruction inside the United States.
He said the scale of the harm they have caused surpasses historic military conflicts when measured by American lives lost domestically.
“There has been more Americans killed because these terrorist cartels drugging our streets, drugging every one of your all streets, everyone of your all’s towns, everyone that audiences towns, we killed,” Mullin said.
“They killed more people in 2024 on our streets than we lost in the entire Vietnam War. For us personnel.”
Mullin emphasized that the threat posed by cartels is not theoretical or distant, but immediate and ongoing, pointing to the flow of drugs into communities across the country.
He described cartels as organized terrorist entities whose activities directly target Americans through violence and narcotics trafficking.
“these are terrorist organizations that are poison our streets,” Mullin said.
He rejected the argument that proximity to the United States should limit the government’s response, insisting that the president already has the constitutional authority to act against such groups.
“The President has the authority to do so,” Mullin said.
“The argument is, is it’s too close to our shores.”
Mullin pressed critics to explain why similar actions were accepted when carried out overseas but are questioned when the targets operate closer to home.
“Does anybody doubt that these are terrorist organizations?” he asked.
“Does anybody have a question about these being terrorist organizations?”
He framed the debate as one of consistency, questioning why the United States would draw a distinction between terrorist groups based on location rather than threat.
“So what’s the difference between Obama attacking these individuals when they were deemed terrorist organizations in the Middle East, versus the ones that are here right now poison our streets,” Mullin said. “That’s what the whole conversation about.”
Just walked out of the 22nd bipartisan briefing from @SecWar and @SecRubio on the strikes against designated narco-terrorists trying to kill Americans.
23 lawful kinetic strikes have killed 95 narco-terrorists who target Americans.
The media is flipping out.
Let’s talk about…
— Markwayne Mullin (@SenMullin) December 16, 2025
WATCH:
🚨 HOLY CRAP! Sen. Markwayne Mullin just went HAYWIRE on Democrats for siding with narco-terrorists over Trump and SecWar Hegseth
“I’m losing PATIENCE on the whole thing because I think it’s RIDICULOUS that we’re having this conversation!” 🔥
“Does anybody DOUBT that these are… pic.twitter.com/iqv3crhZ5u
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) December 16, 2025
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