Rogue GOP Sen. Rand Paul has delivered a stunning rebuke to Vice President JD Vance’s defense of the Trump administration’s deadly strike against a Venezuelan boat allegedly involved with drugs.
Vance, 41, had lauded the strike, which killed 11 people, on X on Saturday, writing that “killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military.”
But Paul, a Libertarian-leaning senator from Kentucky who has repeatedly tangled with President Trump on various issues, accused the VP of glorifying an execution that took place without a trial.
“JD ‘I don’t give a sh—‘ Vance says killing people he accuses of a crime is the ‘highest and best use of the military,’ ” Paul, 62, clapped back later Saturday on X.
“Did he ever read To Kill a Mockingbird?” Paul said. “Did he ever wonder what might happen if the accused were immediately executed without trial or representation?? What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial.”
The vice president also had traded barbs over the strike with social-media influencer Brian Krassenstein, who contended that “killing the citizens of another nation who are civilians without any due process is called a war crime.”
Vance shot back, “I don’t give a sh– what you call it.”
Paul has long been a staunch critic of hawkish foreign-policy tendencies exhibited by presidents of both parties.
His latest comments come as the Trump administration has begun stepping up its offense against foreign drug cartels.
Trump revealed Tuesday that the US conducted a strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean that he claimed was operated by the infamous Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and bound for the US.
Last month, the Trump administration also bumped up the bounty on Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro to $50 million.
The US has ramped up its military presence in the region, too, dispatching 10 F-35 stealth fighters to Puerto Rico.
Critics have raised concerns about the legality of last week’s open attack, as Congress hasn’t yet officially declared Tren de Aragua an enemy combatant.
Vance emerged as one of the most forceful defenders of last week’s attack, hailing Trump for taking actions to protect Americans from drug smugglers.
“Democrats: let’s send your kids to die in Russia. Republicans: actually let’s protect our people from the scum of the earth,” the vice president added in another X post.
Top administration officials have foreshadowed plans for similar military actions against other international drug smugglers and cartels in the future.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared that the mission “won’t stop with just this strike.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also also warned that other smugglers will “face the same fate.”
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