Vice President JD Vance sparked widespread criticism on Wednesday, September 17, after making jokes about deadly U.S. military strikes on Venezuelan boats during a rally in Michigan, suggesting the attacks had deterred both drug smugglers and innocent fishermen from operating in Caribbean waters.
Speaking to supporters at a stamping plant in Howell, Michigan, Vance recounted a conversation with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth about the recent strikes ordered by President Donald Trump. Vance told the crowd that Hegseth had informed him that drug boats had completely stopped coming into the country following the attacks.
The vice president responded with what drew muted laughter from the audience: “Hell, I wouldn’t go fishing right now in that area of the world.” The 41-year-old Marine veteran described himself as proud to have a president willing to use military force against cartels threatening Americans.
The remarks came after Trump announced two separate strikes within weeks targeting what the administration claimed were Venezuelan drug-smuggling vessels in international waters. The first attack on September 6 reportedly killed 11 people, while a second strike on September 16 killed three additional individuals. Trump has characterized the targets as members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua cartel and other violent drug trafficking organizations.
However, Venezuela’s interior minister Diosdado Cabello disputed the administration’s claims, stating on state television that investigations revealed none of the 11 people killed in the first strike were members of Tren de Aragua or drug traffickers. Cabello questioned how the U.S. could determine whether drugs were aboard the vessels and asked why the individuals were not arrested instead of killed.
The strikes have drawn bipartisan criticism regarding their legality and the administration’s lack of transparency about the operations. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia led 24 other Democratic senators in demanding the White House provide legitimate legal justification for the attacks. The lawmakers argued that the administration had failed to explain how it identified the vessels as drug-carrying boats or why military force was used instead of traditional Coast Guard seizure procedures.
Republican Senator Rand Paul also condemned Vance’s earlier social media response to criticism, calling it despicable and thoughtless to glorify killing someone without a trial. Paul was responding to Vance’s September 6 post where the vice president dismissed concerns about the strikes’ legality by stating he did not care what critics called the actions.
Duke University law professor Charles Dunlap, a former senior Air Force lawyer, indicated to Politico that while legal paths for the strikes might exist depending on evidence, the administration was not helping its case by failing to be fully transparent about the justification for military responses.
Social media users widely criticized Vance’s fishing joke, with many expressing concern about the vice president making light of potentially deadly military actions against civilians. Critics noted that countries do not have the right to attack vessels in international waters without proper legal justification, and questioned whether the administration could distinguish between drug dealers and innocent fishermen.
Trump has defended the strikes by claiming the vessels posed threats to national security and foreign policy interests. In a letter to Senate President Pro Tempore Chuck Grassley, Trump argued that the inability of regional states to address continuing threats from their territories had reached a critical point requiring U.S. military force in self-defense.
The president posted videos of the strikes on Truth Social, describing the targets as extremely violent drug trafficking cartels transporting illegal narcotics. When asked for proof that the vessels carried drugs, Trump claimed that cargo including cocaine and fentanyl was scattered across the ocean following the strikes.
Senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, characterized the strikes as an outrageous violation of law and dangerous assault on the Constitution. Reed warned on September 16 that Trump risked igniting a war with Venezuela, which has called the attacks provocations and argued that at least one targeted vessel was a fishing boat rather than a drug-smuggling operation.
