Democrat Senator: Mexican Cartels That Kill Americans Are Not Terrorist Organizations

Over the weekend, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-NJ) suggested that Mexican drug cartels are not terrorist organizations despite being responsible for numerous American deaths every year. 

The Democrat senator made the comments during an interview on NBC News’s “Meet the Press” with host Chuck Todd, during which they discussed the possibility of the United States officially designating the cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

“Do you think designating the cartels as a foreign terrorist organization helps or hurts that ability to work with the Mexican government?” Todd asked.

“Well, slapping a designation isn’t in and of itself going to change anything,” Menendez said. “We should save that for truly terrorist organizations in the world. Certainly, they are consequential to questions of national security. I’m more interested in doing something that ultimately seeks to destroy the cartels than to just name them. You know, you name them a foreign terrorist organization, that in and of itself means nothing.”

Democrat Senator Bob Menendez won't say if he'd vote to declare Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations: "We should save that for truly terrorist organizations in the world." pic.twitter.com/X7ATqGuwu6

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 12, 2023