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Jim Himes: “It's cocaine, not fentanyl.”

Featuring: Jim Himes, Democratic | U.S. House Connecticut, 4th Congressional District

A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations

Published November 24, 2025 | Video Starts at 13:19

I understand why we're doing this, but what are we actually achieving? First of all, It's cocaine, not fentanyl. Secondly, there are lots of ways to get cocaine in the United States. So just. If. If. Even if we could. (13:19–13:21)

CLAIM

Asserts that the focus is on cocaine, not fentanyl.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Jim Himes

“They found this space that apparently can use whatever the thing is, 20% of the United States Navy's combat power, but is somehow not a…”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 10:39-10:49
“We helped overthrow a democratically elected leader in 1954 in [Guatemala].”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 16:16-16:21
“We probably did the similar thing in 1973 in Chile.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 16:23-16:26
“Almost every country [in Latin America], Venezuela excepted, are democracies.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 26:20-26:27
“The Constitution vests in the Congress the power to declare war unambiguously.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 01:06-01:13
“The War Powers act passed in 73 on the heels of the Vietnam War, which was never declared by Congress.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 01:36-01:43
“The War Powers act basically says, look, the president has a pretty free hand for a period of 60 days.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 02:09-02:15
“Since the 1990s or so, Congress has increasingly been comfortable with presidents exercising authorities which strike me as not…”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 02:42-02:52
“President Trump [is] using his military authorities against civilians [in the Caribbean].”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 02:59-03:01
“Clinton, of course, prosecutes a military attack on, largely on Serbs in the late 1990s in the Balkans, and he doesn't get permission from…”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 04:05-04:16
“The current administration is... moving the needle well beyond this precedent.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 04:55-05:10
“Obama of course takes military strikes in Syria, bombs Syrian positions after the president there, Assad gases his own people.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 05:10-05:20
“We're going to move a big chunk of the Navy's combat power into the Caribbean.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 06:05-06:10
“The administration is arguing that we are in a non-international armed conflict.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 07:49-07:56
“They are basically saying that the cartels are ISIS and Al Qaeda all wrapped up in one.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 08:30-08:37
“The administration is saying that the money that goes into that they get from cocaine is going into a campaign of extortion and terror.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 09:20-09:31
“Our resolution would say, no, it is [a war]. And you've got to get authority from the Congress to continue with your kinetic attacks in the…”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 10:31-10:31
“The Venezuelan regime is a very bad regime. It's illegitimate.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 11:29-11:34
“There are people in the Venezuelan regime who are on the take to the, from the cartels to turn a blind eye to truck shipments.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 11:36-11:45
“The idea that the Maduro regime is a narco regime, beyond the garden variety corruption that exists in lots of regimes in South America and…”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 11:49-12:04
“Even if we could cut off the flow of all maritime cocaine into Trinidad and the Dominican Republic, there are air routes, there are overland…”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 13:26-13:37
“The administration would love you to believe that these are terrorists, but they're not.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 14:03-14:07
“The Trump administration is not being particularly diligent about advising Congress.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 17:41-17:49
“Here we are two months into these strikes, and we have not had a single briefing on the intelligence.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 18:10-18:17
“An awful lot of countries, most notably the UK, certainly Colombia, are saying, hey, sorry, guys, as long as you're doing this banana stuff…”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 18:52-19:07
“The Gang of Eight are the leadership of the two Houses, plus the chair and the ranking member of the intelligence committees.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 21:08-21:19
“The Gang of Eight get briefed on the most sensitive stuff.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 21:08-21:19
“Donald Trump sees the world in terms of power, with powerful countries like Russia and China.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 24:56-25:06
“In Brazil, if they prosecute their ex-president, [Trump] will slap 50% tariffs on Brazil.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 25:31-25:42
“Latin America has made tremendous progress since I was a little kid there.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 26:13-26:16
“We've missed [engaging with Latin America] under president, under president, under president.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 26:28-26:32
“Donald Trump is making [the situation in Latin America] 10 times worse through this personalist kind of caudillo view of the world.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 26:59-27:05
“The introduction of ground troops or kinetic activity in Venezuela would be a dagger in the heart of this MAGA premise.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 28:22-28:28
“If we took military action against Venezuela, there would be a reaction in the continent.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 28:58-29:06
“There's no guarantee that what replaces Maduro is any better.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 29:12-29:17
“We now live in a bipolar, maybe even tripolar world.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 31:43-31:48
“The Chinese are not going away.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 31:47-31:50
“Europe, economically, not militarily, is basically the same as the United States.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 32:06-32:14
“Most of my colleagues are thinking about China using a Soviet Cold War mentality.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 32:29-32:34
“We need to invest in what does it look like when we arrive at a detente in accommodation with China.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 32:41-32:57
“The world is increasingly split between those countries who aspire to some version of liberal market regulated capitalism and those that…”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 32:58-33:14
“If Donald Trump has done one really devastating thing to our ability to project power abroad, it is his disdain for alliances.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 33:36-33:44
“Countering China, dealing with Iran, dealing with North Korea...will require immensely robust alliances.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 33:45-33:56
“Out of the chaos and tumult and horrors of the late 19th century comes the original progressive movement with Teddy Roosevelt.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 35:39-35:47
“If we could get a Teddy Roosevelt in a modern progressive movement in the tradition of that early 20th century progressive movement.”
A Conversation with Representative Jim Himes | American Conversations | Uploaded November 24, 2025 | 35:48-35:57