WASHINGTON — Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said Thursday he was pleased with video footage he had just seen in a classified briefing that showed two survivors of a U.S. military strike on an alleged drug boat being killed in a follow-up strike, an incident that has alarmed lawmakers in both parties and sparked calls for investigations of potential war crimes or outright murder.

These were “righteous strikes,” Cotton, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters on Capitol Hill. He was one of several lawmakers briefed by Admiral Frank Bradley and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan Caine on the Sept. 2 boat strikes in the Caribbean, near Venezuela.

“The first strike, the second strike, and the third and the fourth strike on Sept. 2 were entirely lawful and needful and they were exactly what we would expect our military commanders to do,” he said.

Asked to describe what he saw in the footage of the second boat strike, Cotton chuckled.

“I saw two survivors trying to flip a boat ― loaded with drugs, bound for the United States ― back over, so they could stay in the fight,” he said. “And potentially, given all the context we heard, of other narcoterrorist boats in the area coming to their aid to recover their cargo and recover those narcoterrorists.”

He added, “These are narcoterrorists, foreign-designated terrorist organizations, who are bringing drugs to our shores that have killed millions of Americans and thousands of Arkansans.”

The Republican senator’s justification for these attacks ― much like President Donald Trump’s ― appears to be based on a massive lie: that drug smugglers were in the process of bringing the deadly synthetic opioid, fentanyl, to the U.S. Pentagon officials have told lawmakers in recent briefings that they haven’t recovered fentanyl in any of these cases, just cocaine.

Cotton’s comments were a stark contrast to the solemn reactions Democrats had as they walked out of the same briefing.

Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters that “what I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service.”

“You have two individuals in clear distress, without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel, who were killed by the United States,” Himes said, pausing for several seconds after.

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was “deeply disturbed” by what he saw.

“The Department of Defense has no choice but to release the complete, unedited footage of the September 2nd strike, as the President has agreed to do,” Reed said in a statement.

“This briefing confirmed my worst fears about the nature of the Trump Administration’s military activities, and demonstrates exactly why the Senate Armed Services Committee has repeatedly requested — and been denied — fundamental information, documents, and facts about this operation,” he said. “This must and will be the only beginning of our investigation into this incident.”

Asked by a reporter what he made of Himes being shaken by the video footage, Cotton essentially shrugged.

“I didn’t see anything disturbing about it,” said the Arkansas Republican. “What’s disturbing to me is that millions of Americans have died from drugs being run to America by these cartels. What’s gratifying to me is that the president has made the decision, finally, after decades of letting it happen, that we’re going to take the battle to them and we’re going to continue to strike these boats.”