Last June, Colorado’s 6th Congressional District U.S. Rep. Jason Crow sharply denounced the Trump administration for carrying out surprise airstrikes against Iran’s nuclear weapons development facilities. We expressed disappointment at Crow’s response.

Now, Crow is at it again, criticizing the Trump White House this week for launching air strikes against narcotraffickers in the Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela. And once again, we have to question the priorities of the fourth-term Democratic congressman from Aurora.

Many of us had felt relieved by the U.S. raid on Iran, and with good reason. The rogue regime long has waged a war of terror against close U.S. ally Israel, funding the likes of Hamas, whose Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel resulted in the mass murder of civilians. As Israel subsequently mounted a counterattack to roust Hamas from its base in neighboring Gaza, Iran lobbed missiles at Israeli population centers. Indeed, Iran has destabilized its entire region for over 40 years. It is arguably the last country on earth that needs access to nuclear weapons.

Crow, however, lashed out not at Teheran but at the administration. He issued a press statement at the time challenging the president’s right to take the action he did.

“The president exceeded his authority when he conducted these military strikes on Iran without congressional approval,” Crow said. “The Constitution is clear — only Congress can authorize the use of military force, unless there is an imminent risk to Americans or U.S. facilities.”

The U.S. Constitution, as well as latter-day policies like the War Powers Act, have in fact proven wide open to interpretation on the matter. No less a constitutional purist than our third president, Thomas Jefferson, deployed the U.S. Marines to the fabled shores of Tripoli in 1803 without Congress’ OK. Reasonable historians and legal scholars can, and do, differ on all that. 

We questioned Crow’s inclination at the time to place a perennial policy debate above the far more urgent need to tackle an imminent security threat. 

We also noted Crow, a decorated combat veteran, is one of only 28 Congressional Democrats with a military background. You would think he would serve as an authoritative counterweight to his party’s many naive doves, as well as its knee-jerk partisans who reliably oppose any action by a Republican president. He could school them on putting aside ideology for the sake of national security.

Yet, here he is, once more wagging a finger over legal fine points — as a sitting president laudably takes on and dispatches ruthless, murderous drug runners ferrying cocaine and fentanyl to the U.S. to poison our youth. 

“The illegal flow of drugs into the U.S. is a huge problem,” Crow acknowledged. “But President Trump does not have the legal authority to launch military strikes in the Caribbean, or anywhere else, without congressional approval.”

Sure, there’s a time and place to ponder the points Crow raises, and he forcefully defended his stance when he met last month with The Gazettes’ editorial board. 

But, to repeat, it’s a matter of priorities.

It’s a safe bet that while Crow and some like-minded congressional colleagues are summoning the media to chide the administration for elbowing Congress out of the limelight, a lot of Middle Americans — including in Crow’s own district — are cheering the strikes against the despicable drug lords and their cartels. Finally, a U.S. president is hitting them where it hurts.

In other words, first things first, Congressman.