‘Despicable’: Rand Paul Spars With Vance Over Venezuelan Boat Strike

Sen. Rand Paul unleashed a slew of criticism over the weekend of the Trump administration’s decision to launch an airstrike on a boat they alleged was carrying drugs off the coast of Venezuela.

The libertarian-minded senator reserved particular ire for Vice President JD Vance, who has stringently defended the government’s right to use deadly force against suspected drug smugglers, saying it is “the highest and best use of our military.”

“JD ‘I don’t give a shit’ Vance says killing people he accuses of a crime is the ‘highest and best use of the military,’” Paul, who leads the Senate Homeland Security Committee wrote in a post on X. “What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial.”

President Donald Trump first announced last Tuesday that the U.S. military had targeted a boat that it suspected was carrying drugs bound for America, killing 11 people on board. He said that the mission was a part of the administration’s war on cartels from Central and South America, and in particular the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

“Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, alongside a video showing alleged footage from the strike.

Trump has long sought to take action against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who the administration accuses of gang ties. During his first term, the U.S. government indicted Maduro on narcotics trafficking charges.

“The president is prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country and to bring those responsible to justice,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said following last week’s strike.

“The Maduro regime is not the legitimate government of Venezuela. It is a narco-terror cartel,” she added.

Venezuelan officials have denied these claims, and said that they are a pretext to overthrow the country’s leftist government.

U.S. officials have said last week’s strike will be the first of many military interventions in the country’s war on drug cartels, which coincides with a military buildup in the southern Caribbean. Several ships have been stationed there, including the guided missile cruiser USS Lake Erie, which arrived last week.

“There’s more where that came from,” Trump said last week. When asked by a reporter Sunday if he would consider airstrikes inside Venezuela, he replied, “Well, you’re going to have to find out.”

Both Republicans and Democrats, however, have expressed concerns over the legality of the boat strike, arguing that the U.S. could have attempted to round up the boat’s occupants instead.

“Did he ever read To Kill a Mockingbird? Did he ever wonder what might happen if the accused were immediately executed without trial or representation??” Paul wrote to Vance on X.

Sen. Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the chamber’s intelligence committee and a member of the “Gang of Eight” who are supposed to be informed by the executive branch about sensitive intelligence matters, told CBS’ Face the Nation Sunday that he has not yet been briefed on the matter.

“There are still international laws of the sea about the process of interdicting these kinds of boats. They are supposed to be firing of a warning shot, you are supposed to try to take it peacefully,” he told host Margaret Brennan. “My understanding is that this boat — none of those procedures were followed.”

Some of the president’s supporters in Congress have defended the strike — and JD Vance — by arguing that overdose deaths in the United States are a crisis that necessitates military action.

“What’s really despicable is defending foreign terrorist drug traffickers who are directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans in Kentucky and Ohio,” Sen. Bernie Moreno, a Republican from Ohio, replied to Paul’s criticism of the vice president.

“JD understands that our first responsibility is to protect the life and liberty of American citizens.”