Rand Paul rips Trump, fellow Republicans over drug boat strikes: They dont give a s about these people

Sen.Rand Paul ripped into his fellow Republicans Tuesday over their tepid response to the Trump administration’s series of strikes against suspected drug-running vessels, saying his colleagues on Capitol Hill “don’t give a s— about these people in the boats.”“We’ve been blowing up these people in boats off the coast of Venezuela.

They’re accused of running drugs, but nobody knows their names and nobody’s put up any evidence,” Paul (R-Ky.) said during an apperance on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast.“And so what I think is bizarre is I hear mostly my Republican colleagues say, ‘Well, we shouldn’t have to—how do we know they’re not armed?’ And it’s like, but there’s this thing called presumption of innocence,” the former opthamologist added.“They say it doesn’t apply.

Well, it actually always has applied on the oceans.We have always had drug interdictions, but we have always stopped boats and asked to search them.

If they flee or shoot at the Coast Guard, they will get shot and blown up.But it’s usually an escalatory sort of steps.”“So I look at my colleagues who say they’re pro-life and they value God’s inspiration in life, but they don’t give a s— about these people in the boats,” Paul went on.

“And are they terrible people in the boats? I don’t know.They’re probably poor people in Venezuela and Colombia.”Since Sept.

2, the US military has carried out at least 35 strikes targeting boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, killing at least 115 people, according to announcements by the Pentagon.Critics, mainly Democrats, have argued that the strikes violate the laws of war and have been carried out without proper congressional approval.Paul, 63, argued to host Joe Rogan that while the Trump administration has played up the threat to American lives from drugs trafficked by Venezuela-based gangs, the boats targeted in the strikes are “not even coming here.

They’re going to thes...