We reported on the United States seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. The Trump administration said it was operating in violation of sanctions.
The tanker, known as the Skipper, has been on a U.S. sanctions list for several years for allegedly moving crude tied to a clandestine Venezuela–Iran oil network that Washington says helped generate revenue for foreign terrorist organizations.
According to officials, that designation rendered the vessel “blocked property” under U.S. law, allowing the Justice Department to seek and obtain a federal warrant to seize it under civil forfeiture statutes. That process — rooted in domestic law and executed through a U.S. court — is the basis for Thursday’s operation, administration officials said.
READ MORE: Venezuelan Tanker’s GPS Deception Exposed: Loaded Millions in Sanctioned Venezuelan Oil
But when one reporter asked Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) about the tanker, her question was off the rails, and Schmitt let her have it. Talk about pushing a narrative with this question.
🚨WATCH: Sen. @Eric_Schmitt CLAPS BACK at reporter.
REPORTER: If you can seize an oil tanker without killing anyone, shouldn’t that have been the way that these fishing boats were also stopped?
SCHMITT: Fishing boats?! What is a fishing boat? The drug runners?
REPORTER:… pic.twitter.com/Zl73p3KLFY
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) December 11, 2025
“If you can seize an oil tanker without killing anyone, shouldn’t that have been the way that these fishing boats were also stopped?” the reporter asked.
Schmitt was astonished by the audacity of the term, “Fishing boats?! What is a fishing boat? The drug runners?”
“Those aren’t fishing boats,” he corrected her.
“Yeah, but…,” she said.
“Those aren’t fishing boats,” he said. He started to explain they were “turbo-charged,” when she interrupted him about seizing the drug boats.
Schmitt explained that the Trump administration had the legal authority to destroy the drug boats because of the designation that they were foreign terrorists. That was different from the legal rationale behind the seizure of the tanker, which involved “economic sanctions by the President, as delegated by Congress,” that were “enforced by civil authorities with the aid of the U.S. Navy.” Schmitt said they were two very different things. Also, if you have the U.S. military trying to board the heavily armed drug boats, you’re also putting them more in harm’s way.
Schmitt spelled out that he didn’t have any sympathy for the narco-terrorists; he had sympathy for his neighbors in Missouri who were suffering from the drugs being imported, who had “been poisoned, who died.”
Schmitt cheered that “we finally have a president who cares about them” rather than Democrats who go down to El Salvador to “drink margaritas.”
That was an attempted “gotcha” that backfired on that reporter. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth termed Schmitt’s response, “Spot on, well said.”
READ MORE: Admiral Bradley’s Testimony Delivers Devastating Blow to Dem Narrative of Drug Boat Story
There was also a bonus smackdown when another reporter asked if Schmitt thought Trump should be overthrowing Maduro. Schmitt dismissed that, saying that’s not what was going on, that we had to protect our interests in this region.
Good on Schmitt for holding the media to account.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.
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