On Wednesday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) commented on the American strike on a boat that the administration says had drug smugglers on it by stating that “even the worst people in our country” get trials, “if they were caught off the coast of Miami,” we’d have a trial, and “it’s not as simple as it may sound, that, let’s just kill all drug dealers, because sometimes you have to figure out who people are before you kill them.”
Paul began by saying that there are issues about America being the world’s police force and trying to police drug trafficking everywhere, but there is clearly a legitimate interest in stopping drugs from coming into the United States.
He added that taking “kinetic action against another group inside their territorial waters” is different from typical law enforcement.
Paul further stated, “We assume these people were bad people and drug dealers, but if they were caught off the coast of Miami, we would stop the boat, if they don’t shoot at us, we don’t shoot at them, their [drugs are] confiscated, they’re put in jail, and then they go to a trial to prove what they were doing. And if they have 20 pounds of cocaine or heroin or something on the boat, they’ll be convicted. The reason we have trials, though, and we don’t automatically assume guilt is, what if we make a mistake and they happen to be people fleeing Venezuela, the Venezuelan dictator? I think, probably, we had the facts correct, we got bad people here. But that’s the reason, like, off our coast, it isn’t our policy just to blow people up. We don’t blow up ships entering our waters unless they’re hellbent on attacking another ship or unless they are resisting with gunfire, we arrest people. So, it is difficult. And it’s hard, because, obviously, they’re bad people…but, typically, even the worst people in our country, we accuse somebody of a terrible crime, they still get a trial.”
He added that if we had declared war on Venezuela, then their ships would be fair game wherever they are, “It’s a little harder here, because this was a crime and this is a criminal syndicate. So, look, once again, no love lost for the people who died that are trying to infiltrate our country with this filth, but, at the same time, you have to realize it’s not as simple as it may sound, that, let’s just kill all drug dealers, because sometimes you have to figure out who people are before you kill them.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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