Rand Paul criticizes Caribbean boat strikes as Trump bypasses Congress

When it comes to combating America’s drug problem, the Trump administration appears to have replaced courtrooms with combat zones. The US military carried out air and sea strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean and off the coast of Venezuela.

Officials say these operations are intended to stop “narco-terrorists” before they reach our shores, but here’s the problem: we don’t actually know who is being killed, or what evidence there is that they were drug traffickers in the first place.

According to the administration, at least 43 people have been killed since the start of this campaign. Defense Minister Pete Hegseth says the military has carried out its 10th strike so far, and there is talk of ground strikes coming after that. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R.S.C.) even told CBS News that he believes President Trump has decided “it’s time for Maduro to go,” speaking of the Venezuelan leader and calling ground strikes a “real possibility.”

Graham then doubled down, saying the military “will kill people who want to poison America.”

But let’s stop. Because while Graham appears ready to invade and escalate, other lawmakers — even Republicans — are sounding the alarm. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a longtime defender of the Constitution, said on “Fox News Sunday” that he was never invited to any news conferences about the attacks.

“A briefing is not enough to defeat the Constitution. The Constitution says when you go to war, Congress has to vote on it… The drug war, or the crime war, is usually handled by law enforcement, and so far they’ve been claiming that these people are drug dealers… and we haven’t had any evidence presented. So at this point we could call it extrajudicial killings.”

Paul didn’t stop there. “At this point, this is what China is doing, this is what Iran is doing without providing any evidence at all to the public,” he said. “So this is wrong.”

And this is the real point: America was built on checks and balances. We are supposed to be the state that demands proof before punishment, not the state that bombs suspects at sea without due process.

However, the White House is publicly signaling that it does not need Congress. Trump even told reporters: “We may go back to Congress and explain exactly what we’re doing… but we don’t have to do that.”

So, let me get this straight. If 43 people are killed in a law enforcement operation, without evidence, without transparency, without a vote from Congress, what exactly do we call that? “War on Drugs” or “War Without Rules”?

Because when a government decides it can kill anyone it calls a criminal – without trial, without evidence, without oversight – it is not a show of force. This is a red flag.

At the very least, Americans deserve answers. Who killed? Why? Under what legal authority? Until we realize this, calling these extrajudicial killings is not radical, it is a reality.

Lindsay Granger is a NewsNation contributor and co-host of the commentary show “Rising” on The Hill. This column is an edited version for on-air commentary.