Last week, a boat carrying 11 narco-terrorists departed Venezuela and made it to international waters in the Caribbean. The boat was carrying a load of drugs bound for Florida. The US military blew it up in spectacular, sending-a-message fashion. It was the most popular thing that the Trump administration did last Tuesday. You’d think this would be cause for Republicans in Congress to celebrate, and it was for most of them. But not for Sen. Rand Paul! The Kentucky Republican is now demanding that President Trump provide due process to narco-terrorists in international waters.
The left sat in silence for eight years as Barack Obama went on a global killing spree of civilians in drone strikes. But when President Trump used the military to carry out a strike that actually benefits America last week, they were apoplectic. Sending cartel members and drugs to the bottom of the ocean? That’s a bridge too far!
Some AI tech dork attacked JD Vance on Twitter/X over the strike, calling it a “war crime.” The vice president’s response went viral:
“I don’t give a sh*t what you call it.”
That prompted this response from Rand Paul:
What’s the point of Rand Paul being in the Senate any longer? He says semi-popular things that appeal to libertarian-leaning GOP voters, but when was the last time that he proposed, championed, and passed a piece of legislation that benefits Americans? That’s not a trick question. He’s never done that.
Paul seems to be deeply concerned with the non-existent civil rights of foreign terrorists. He’d very much prefer that the military had arrested those 11 narco-terrorists and provided them with due process. What would that look like?
The 11 Tren de Aragua members would be brought to America and put on trial. Some liberal judge would give them 5-year sentences, and they’d be out in two years. At that point, they’d be deported back to Venezuela so they could start running drugs into Florida again. Then, more Americans start dying from fentanyl poisoning again. Great non-solution!
Rand Paul was first elected to the Senate in Kentucky in 2010. He was sworn in as a US Senator in January 2011. Since that time, 22,669 Kentuckians have died from heroin and fentanyl overdoses. 34% of those deaths happened while Joe Biden was in office and our southern border was wide open.
He’s more concerned about the “rights” of drug traffickers than he is for his own constituents who are dying from those drugs. That’s libertarianism for you.
Funny thing, though… when Barack Obama was in office and Rand Paul was running his failed presidential campaign in 2015, the Kentucky Senator supported the use of Obama’s drone strikes against Americans.
In January 2015, Obama launched a drone strike at a home in Pakistan (a country we were not at war with). Inside the home were two Americans who had joined Al Qaeda. The men had taken two hostages and were holding them in the home. You might think that rescuing the hostages would be a job to send in the Navy SEALs or Delta Force. Especially since one of the hostages was an American aid worker.
Obama’s solution was to blow the house up in a drone strike. He killed both American Al Qaeda operatives, the American hostage, and the second hostage.
You’d think that three dead Americans in an extrajudicial drone strike would get up the dander of Senator Rand Paul. Especially since one was a hostage!
But, no. Rand Paul decided that this was an acceptable use of a drone strike.
“[I]f you are holding hostages, you kind of are involved in combat,” he told CBS News in 2015.
How is that acceptable when there’s an American hostage in the building? When it comes to the Americans who joined Al Qaeda, you can kind of see it both ways. Maybe they deserve due process, maybe not. But an American hostage?
The point is that Rand Paul didn’t support due process for Americans when Obama was killing them in drone strikes. But he suddenly wants due process for foreigners who were bringing poison into America.
What’s the point of Rand Paul any longer? Have Republican voters had enough of his schtick yet? He’s basically a nepo-baby and a social media influencer with a taxpayer-funded salary. Sane Americans support the use of lethal military force against the drug cartels and have for many years. Sadly, he’s not up for reelection until 2030. We hope the voters in Kentucky don’t forget this.