Multiple U.S. senators have said that they did not know the military was operating in Niger until the deaths of four American soldiers in the African country earlier this month.
When CNN "New Day" host Chris Cuomo asked Sen. Bob Casey, D-Penn., on Monday if he knew the U.S. had troops in Niger, he replied, "I did not."
He added, "When you consider what happened here, the four sergeants lost their lives, I think there's a lot of work that both parties and both branches of government need to do. Not only to stay more informed but to focus on why we're there and what happened to get to the bottom of this."
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he "didn't know there was 1,000 troops in Niger. They are going to brief us next week as to why they were there and what they were doing."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also said on the program that he "did not" know there were troops in the country.
Since the deaths of the four servicemen, Graham has gotten "a little insight on why they were there and what they were doing. I can say this to the families: They were there to defend America. They were there to help allies. They were there to prevent another platform to attack America and our allies."
He added that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is "rightly" frustrated by the lack of information, despite being chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"We don't know exactly where we're at in the world, militarily, and what we're doing. So John McCain is going to try to create a new system to make sure that we can answer the question, 'why we were there,'" Graham said. "We'll know how many soldiers are there, and if somebody gets killed there, that we won't find out about it in the paper."
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