Hold onto your hats, folks—Congress is once again left in the dark while the administration plays fast and loose with military moves abroad.

Rep. Madeleine Dean, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, has sounded the alarm over recent U.S. strikes in Nigeria, accusing the administration of dodging transparency and stirring up unnecessary turmoil during what should be a season of peace, Breitbart reported. 

Dean aired her grievances on a recent broadcast of "CNN News Central," pointing out a glaring gap between what’s being reported and what Congress actually knows.

Disconnect Between Reports and Reality

While Nigeria’s Foreign Minister claimed the strikes were a joint effort—coordinated, collaborative, and focused on regional terrorism rather than religious divides—Dean isn’t buying the rosy picture.

“[T]he Foreign Minister of Nigeria was on this morning and said that this [was] coordinated and it was collaborative and cooperative between the United States and Nigeria,” said co-host Kate Bolduan, adding that the issue was framed as a terrorism concern, not a faith-based conflict.

But let’s be real: if this was such a buddy-buddy operation, why is Congress playing catch-up instead of being in the loop from the get-go?

Congress Left Out of the Loop

Dean didn’t mince words, recalling how traditionally, lawmakers would be briefed ahead of time with hard facts to back up any action.

Instead, she pointed to a classified briefing just days prior on unrelated Venezuelan boat strikes, led by Secretaries Rubio and Hegseth, which left her and others empty-handed on details.

“I can tell you what they didn’t brief us on, which were the facts,” Dean fumed, highlighting a pattern of stonewalling that’s becoming all too familiar.

Administration Accused of Sowing Chaos

This isn’t just a one-off oversight, according to Dean—it’s a deliberate strategy to keep Congress sidelined while the administration does as it pleases.

She went as far as to accuse the current leadership of intentionally creating disorder, especially at a time when most Americans are focused on holiday cheer.

“At a time, Christmas season, a time of joy, a time to try to give gifts to others, this administration is hell-bent on making sure they sow chaos and distraction,” Dean charged, her frustration palpable.

Transparency Should Be the Priority

Now, let’s not pretend Congress is always a bastion of harmony, but Dean’s got a point—lawmakers deserve to know what’s happening when American forces are involved overseas.

From a conservative angle, this reeks of an administration more interested in unchecked power than in accountability, a dangerous trend that undermines trust in governance and distracts from real issues like securing our own borders or fixing the economy.

While we can appreciate the need to combat terrorism regionally, as Nigeria’s minister noted, the least the administration could do is keep our elected officials informed—unless, of course, “chaos and distraction” is the actual game plan, and if so, that’s a holiday gift nobody asked for.