Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said Tuesday that the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug boats is bringing the United States closer to war with Venezuela.
Paul, a leading critic of foreign intervention, has sharply criticized Trump’s continued strikes on alleged drug traffickers and warned the president against pursuing regime change. Trump declared Venezuelan air space to be closed over the weekend, ratcheting up his pressure campaign against dictator Nicolás Maduro, whom the White House views as an illegitimate leader.
“I think most of this is a prelude to war with Venezuela. All of this is a lead up,” Paul told reporters in the Capitol.
“I hope it’s not a prelude to war, but I feel like they’re building up towards war,” the senator continued. “Hopefully this second bombing of survivors … which is clearly illegal, hopefully there’ll be enough of an uproar over this, that will slow down the drumbeats.”
His comments on Tuesday came in response to Sept. 2 strikes on an alleged drug vessel in the Caribbean Sea, which sparked outrage over concerns that a follow-up strike on two survivors violated the laws of war.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that Admiral Frank Bradley ordered the strikes, but acted within his authority to eliminate the alleged drug traffickers.
The White House referred the Daily Caller News Foundation to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s comments during a Tuesday afternoon cabinet meeting.
“We’ve only just begun striking narco boats and putting narcoterrorists at the bottom of the ocean because they’ve been poisoning the American people,” the Hegseth said. “And [former President] Joe Biden tried to approach it with kid gloves.”
Paul has faulted the administration for failing to show proof the vessels are trafficking drugs.
The boat strikes remain politically popular, according to recent polling. A Nov. 23 CBS News/YouGov poll found that 53% of American adults support military strikes against alleged drug boats. However, the same poll found that seven-in-10 American adults oppose potential U.S. military action Maduro’s regime.
Though the Pentagon has limited its strikes against drug traffickers to the Caribbean Sea, Trump has repeatedly floatedexpanding the military operation to land.
“That was what people liked about Donald Trump, was that he wasn’t for these offensive wars of choice,” Paul said. “He wasn’t for regime change.”
Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis joined Paul in criticizing the Sept. 2nd strikes, pressing for congressional oversight and accountability in the incident.
“Somebody made a horrible decision — somebody needs to be held accountable,” Tillis told the DCNF on Tuesday. “You don’t have to have served in the military to understand that that was a violation of ethical, moral, and legal code. And so if the facts play out the way they’re currently being reported, then somebody needs to get the hell out of Washington.”
Both the House Armed Services Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee have launched inquiries into the lethal double-strike.
Republican Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt defended the Secretary of War, calling the Washington Post story that first reported on the Sept. 2 strikes “totally debunked.”
“This nonsense about it being a war crime is total bullshit. It’s all they have,” Schmitt told reporters on Tuesday. “And the desire then to treat [Hegseth] as a war criminal, to treat servicemen as war criminals, is beyond just a normal political debate.”
Democratic lawmakers have largely denounced the deadly strike and called for Hegseth’s resignation despite the White House saying Hegseth did not make an order to kill the survivors.
“This is beyond the pale, and we would not accept it, and we never have accepted it, from any other administration in my lifetime,” Democratic Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen told the DCNF. “And so we cannot normalize this. Laws are not suggestions. The rules of engagement are not suggestions at someone’s whim.”
“[Hegseth] likes to tout his position as a secretary: He’s the one in charge. Everything stops with him. The buck stops at his desk for everything that happens … He needs to take responsibility. He needs to resign,” Rosen continued.
