“Use targeted U.S. military force -- special operations teams and drones -- against Mexican cartels' fentanyl manufacturing and distribution networks, rather than continuing to negotiate with the Mexican government.”
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Verification confirms the PARTIAL rating. McCormick has been demonstrably active on the fentanyl/cartel file since taking office (Jan 2025), keeping his hawkish framing, but has NOT delivered the SPECIFIC promised mechanism -- targeted U.S. military force (special ops + drones) RATHER than negotiating with the Mexican government. His concrete post-promise actions took non-kinetic routes: (1) the Joint Task Force to Counter Illicit Synthetic Narcotics Act (March 11, 2025) is an interagency law-enforcement/sanctions coordination body composed of DOJ, Treasury, DHS, State, Commerce, Defense, and ODNI representatives -- with no strike authority (verbatim: 'streamline interagency collaboration, enhance legal enforcement, and report regularly to Congress'); (2) his flagship Mexico Security Assistance Accountability Act / S.1780 (May 15, 2025, with Democrat Mark Kelly) works THROUGH the Mexican government, requiring the State Department to develop a strategy to 'increase the capacity of Mexico's military and public security institutions to degrade the cartels' so 'security cooperation is actually achieving results' -- essentially the cooperative approach the promise pledged to abandon. He did not author or co-sponsor the cartel AUMF (H.J.Res.81, sponsored by Rep. Steube in the House; McCormick as a Senator is not a sponsor). A senator cannot unilaterally order strikes, and the Trump administration -- not McCormick -- is the actor conducting cartel-related military action. He has advanced the broad anti-cartel goal but is absent on the promised military-force-over-negotiation means: 'did part.' PARTIAL does not overstate (it does not credit FULL/CHAMPIONED of the specific mechanism), and ~18 months of documented record on the exact topic makes his chosen path determinable, so it is not UNRATABLE. Confidence is moderate because the rating hinges on how strictly to require the military-force mechanism versus crediting his broader anti-cartel legislating -- and because his signature S.1780 arguably runs counter to (not merely short of) the promise.
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