Legality of US military activity around Venezuela is 'questionable,' Sen. Mark Kelly says

Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly said Sunday that the legality of the Trump administration sending an aircraft carrier battle group to waters around Central and South America is “questionable.” The move comes as the U.S. military carried out its 10th strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat, all of them in international waters.

"The White House and the Department of Defense could not give us a logical explanation on how this is legal," Kelly told ABC News' "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz. "They were tying themselves in knots trying to explain this. We had a lot of questions for them, both Democrats and Republicans. It was not a good meeting. It did not go well."

Kelly also criticized the possibility of the United States military conducting land attacks in Venezuela.

"You don't move a battlegroup all the way from where it was to the Caribbean. Unless you're planning on either to intimidate the country, which is rather intimidating, or you're going to start conducting combat operations in Venezuela. And this doesn't make the United States more safe. This makes us less safe. I mean, starting a war against Venezuela over what is a law enforcement action does not make any sense," Kelly said.

At least 43 people are believed to have been killed in the U.S. strikes so far.

Here are more highlights from Kelly's interview:

<h2>On the shutdown standoff</h2>

Raddatz: [Treasury Secretary] Scott Bessent said [a meeting with Trump] wouldn't do any good because of the Democrats.

Kelly: Well, he has no idea what he's talking about.

Raddatz: No idea?

Kelly: It would do some good if we could have a real negotiation about this. And with the president, the president has spent one hour on this. How much time has he spent talking about his ballroom? This ballroom that he got all these folks, and they're going to probably get something out of it to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on this room that almost every single American taxpayer will never go in that room.

<h2>On voting against a bill to pay federal workers during the shutdown</h2>

Raddatz: You voted against a Republican-sponsored bill that would have provided pay for some federal workers. Why?

Kelly: Well, we had another proposal to pay federal workers. The problem with that is that legislation gave too much power to an OMB director, Russell Vought, that's already out of control and firing people, furloughing people, ending government agencies. And that legislation would give that individual more control. It was ridiculous.

Raddatz: Even if it would pay some federal workers, we could have paid federal workers.

Kelly: We had legislation to do exactly that. Put it -- put it out there. It did not pass, either. We're looking for unanimous consent. Republicans blocked it.