Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) took a swing at Vice President Vance on Saturday over comments Vance made about a strike on an alleged drug boat.
“Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military,” Vance said in a Saturday morning post on the social platform X, referencing a U.S. military strike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea that the Trump administration has stated killed 11 Venezuelan drug traffickers.
In response to Vance’s post, Paul wrote in a post of his own later Saturday that “JD ‘I don’t give a s—’ Vance says killing people he accuses of a crime is the ‘highest and best use of the military.’”
“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??” the Kentucky senator added.
“What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial,” he continued.
On Tuesday, President Trump said that a U.S. military “kinetic” strike killed 11 “terrorists” on a “drug vessel” in the Caribbean in the wake of leaving Venezuela.
According to the administration, the Tuesday morning strike hit a boat with members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan transnational gang that is designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government.
“Earlier this morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” Trump said on Truth Social.
“TDA is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, operating under the control of Nicolas Maduro, responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere,” the president continued.
The Hill has reached out to Vance’s office for comment.
