(Headline USA) The Republican challenger trying to flip the U.S. Senate seat in swing-state Pennsylvania said he’ll press for U.S. military action in Mexico to target fentanyl trafficking networks.
David McCormick, who is challenging third-term Democratic Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, is making the idea part of his plan for fighting the fentanyl scourge, which is playing a big role in the campaign and has been central to dueling TV ads in the race
But now, McCormick—a decorated Army combat veteran and ex- hedge fund CEO who served on Trump’s Defense Advisory Board—is testing the message of unilateral U.S. military action in Mexico in a state that could be decisive in determining which party wins the White House and a Senate majority in November’s election.
McCormick envisions using the U.S. military’s drones and special operations teams in Mexico to destroy fentanyl trafficking cartels, though he stresses that the military should be used “selectively and thoughtfully.”
“I’m not saying we’re going to send the 82nd Airborne Division to do a jump into Mexico,” McCormick said. “What I’m saying is the combination of special operations and drones, I think, could eradicate the manufacturing facilities, kill the distribution networks and do a real dent in what is a terrorist activity.”
Military action is justified, McCormick says, by what he calls “the biggest killer in our country.” The U.S. shouldn’t wait for a blessing from a Mexican government that has failed to address its problem with fentanyl production and trafficking, he said.
“So the time for negotiating with the Mexican government to get their DEA on this is gone,” McCormick told one audience in September. “We’ve got to get tough on it. And that’s what I would do.”
Casey has neither criticized nor backed the idea of using the U.S. military in Mexico. Instead, he has pointed to his support for measures in Congress to strengthen screening at border checkpoints.
McCormick and other Republicans compare fentanyl deaths to combat losses in the Vietnam War: Roughly 110,000 drug overdose deaths each of the last two years in which fentanyl was the primary culprit two-thirds of the time, compared to 58,000 reported U.S. casualties in the war.
“What we’re in is unprecedented,” he said. “The numbers are beyond imagination in terms of what we’re experiencing right now.”
McCormick says the closest model for what he has in mind is the U.S. military’s cocaine interdiction work with the cooperation of the Colombian government against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. McCormick called that effort “incredibly successful.”
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
