WASHINGTON, United States (CMC) – United States (US) Democratic Senator, Adam Schiff,  is calling on President Donald Trump to dismiss his Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth for his involvement in boat strikes in the Caribbean Sea and the killing of survivors.

In addition, Schiff says Hegesth should be fired for the national security breaches that endangered the US military through his use of the social media platform, Signal, to discuss sensitive national security information.

“[Hegseth] should be fired over this killing of these survivors at sea, and he should be fired for endangering our pilots,” said Schiff on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, where he reiterated that the unauthorised and illegal boat strikes in the Caribbean Sea are “dragging the United States closer to war with Venezuela.

“That Inspector General report made it clear that his actions in using this commercial app to Signal military strike plans ahead of those strikes endangered our pilots. It also endangered the success of the mission. That is more than enough reason to get rid of him.

“That kind of dangerous incompetence puts everyone at risk. His claim of exoneration is based on the fact that he has the authority to declassify information, and he is deeming it declassified because he went through this reckless step of texting it out on Signal to a journalist and family members and others.

“But the threat to our service members and to the mission remained whatever you call it. That material was classified before he sent it out, and I think it was classified when he did. So, there needs to be some accountability, or other people are going to be put in harm’s way,” Schiff said.

He called on the Trump administration to publicly release the full video of the second attack on survivors of the suspected drug-trafficking boat in the Caribbean Sea in early September, stating that he and his colleagues will call for a War Powers Resolution to force a debate and vote in the US Congress that would block the use of US forces in hostilities against or within Venezuela, if Trump should follow through on his threat to strike Venezuela on land “very soon.”

Schiff stressed that the US military continued strikes on suspected drug vessels in the Caribbean Sea are “unauthorised and illegal.

“They’re unlawful. They’re unconstitutional, and killing two people who are shipwrecked at sea is also morally repugnant.”

Schiff said, while he agrees that the US “should do everything lawfully” to stop the scourge of drugs coming into the country, the boat strikes are “not at all lawful or constitutional.

“And, frankly, if the Pentagon and our defence secretary is so proud of what they’re doing, let the American people see that video. Let the American people see two people standing on a capsized boat or sitting on a capsized boat and deliberately killed and decide for themselves whether they’re proud of what the country is doing. I can’t imagine people will be proud of that.”

Schiff said the manual on the law of war “makes it explicit that killing people who are shipwrecked is illegal, is a violation of law. They’re a form of extrajudicial killing.

“These boats are not invading the United States in an armed assault. They are thousands of miles away. Some of them, maybe even this vessel —if reports are accurate — wasn’t even heading to the United States.

“And for us to be engaged in this kind of unauthorised campaign of extrajudicial killing couldn’t be, I think, a more clear violation of the law.”

The US lawmaker said the American people don’t want to go to war with Venezuela.

Schiff predicted that more legislators may support the third War Powers Resolution that he plans to introduce soon, as more legislators are able to view footage of the boat strikes in the Caribbean Sea.