I am not sure what happened between Donald Trump and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), but the Kentucky senator has gone from supporting virtually all things Donald Trump to opposing everything during this second term.
Paul has pushed back from virtually the beginning of Trump’s immigration push, more specifically on the narco drug boats.
And now he appears to be pushing back on the DHS narrative regarding the Alex Pretti shooting, which could be a huge problem for Trump and this administration, or rather DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
Paul had publicly argued against on the boat strikes from the outset, all but accusing the administration of conducting summary executions in open waters.
During a recent interview with Joe Rogan, Paul was even blunter, stating, “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. Are they terrible people in the boats? I don’t know. They’re probably poor people in Venezuela and Colombia.”
He continued, “But I guess what I don’t feel connected to my Republican colleagues is that those lives don’t matter at all, and we just blow them up. And against all justice, and against all laws of war, all laws of just war, we have never blown up people who were shipwrecked.”
Paul further stated that many of the boats being destroyed were not carrying fentanyl, as the administration had contended, and that the drugs on the boats were not even headed to the United States but instead headed to Europe.
On top of Republican senators like Paul who are against these strikes, the overall temperature on immigration is changing in this country, especially after these shootings.
Trump never hid the fact that he planned on removing every illegal immigrant who entered this country when Joe Biden was president, but I doubt most people imagined the aggressive tactics of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
Personally, I don’t have a problem with it, but I can understand how some people are getting squeamish over this.
Recent polling on the subject has Trump taking a big hit, which is likely why Trump sent Tom Homan into Minneapolis to try to diffuse the situation.
This brings us back to the Pretti shooting, where most Republicans are holding their tongue, but Paul is now joining those who are upset about how DHS handled this, and that could result in Noem being impeached.
Paul did not support the narrative presented by top Trump adviser Stephen Miller, who called Pretty an “assassin” and Noem, who claimed he was there to inflict maximum damage on authorities, stating, “I saw no evidence — I saw a man that was retreating. He went to the middle of the street, he didn’t even obstruct traffic, he let a car go through.”
He continued, “As the agents advanced on him, he retreated to the side of the street. A woman is violently pushed to the ground and he turns to help her and that’s when he is grabbed from behind.”
Democrats want Noem out, and if she does not resign, they are coming after her. With the slim majority in the House, I think Dems get the handful of Republicans they would need to remove her. The question is whether they can get 67 senators to do the same. Right now, I would say that they probably have close to 60 votes, and if the report on the Pretti murder says anything different than how Noem portrayed this, they just might be able to find the votes to send her packing.
