Blowing up boats without Congressional approval, ie. Authorization of Use of Military Force violates the US Constitution.

Executing a second strike on people that are in the water violates international law (it's a war crime) and US military law. And the US Constitution.

Boarding a ship that you have an arrest warrant on is completely legal. If this happened without the strikes that preceded it, it probably wouldn't make the news.

This is the action they want to be asked a lot of questions about, because this action was actually legal. They do not want people asking about the second strike back in September, since that was a war crime. They know people have non-existent memories now, so if they do an action that's legal (but maybe controversial) they can make people forget the illegal action in the past. So by trying to make controversy about the thing they want to be asked questions about, you're actually doing exactly what they want.

The response they don't want is "yeah sure, you arrested a ship, whatever... but what about that second strike?"