GOP Sen. Rand Paul said Wednesday he opposes any U.S. military action in Greenland as the White House says it is exploring all options for acquisition of the territory.
„It won‘t happen under my watch,“ Paul said on „CBS Mornings“ about military action in Greenland. „I will do everything to stop any kind of military takeover of Greenland.“
(January 4, 2026)
STEPHANOPOULOS: So, what can the Congress do about it is the next question.
SCHUMER: Well, the next question is very simple, and that is that we have the War Powers Act. That‘s a privilege resolution, which means the Republicans can‘t block it.
Tim Kaine and I and Rand Paul are sponsors of it. It‘s going to come to the floor this week. And if it is voted for, if it‘s voted positively in both houses, then the president can‘t do another thing in Venezuela without the OK of Congress. We have to pass it.
(January 3, 2026)
The resolution to block the administration from engaging in further hostilities against Venezuela is privileged, which means Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) cannot stop it from coming to the floor.
The measure is sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).
It needs only a simple majority to pass the Senate.
“I’m reminded of what my mother would tell me when I was a kid, ‘Ten wrongs don’t make a right,’ so the fact that 10 presidents have done it doesn’t make it right. Our Founding Fathers were united to a person — all those who signed, all those who debated over the Constitution, the Federalist Papers — were unanimous that Congress should declare war, no president should on his own. Now we have disobeyed that, but we do have the ability, if Congress rose up in a clear two-thirds majority and said ‘no,’ we could overturn any veto.”
Last week, Paul and Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine (Va.), Adam Schiff (Ca.) and Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) filed a war powers resolution to prevent the administration from engaging Venezuela in conflict without congressional approval.
The Kentucky Republican reiterated he and his colleagues’ push on Wednesday, saying that “if you want war, the president should come to Congress, like the Constitution dictates, and he should ask Congress for a declaration of war.
“That’s what should be going on right now.”
A vote was held to discharge Resolution S.J.Res.90, the Venezuela Hostilities Removal Resolution, a resolution sponsored by Democrats Tim Kaine and Adam Schiff and Republican senator Rand Paul on October 16.
It aimed to invoke the 1973 War Powers Resolution which asserts that US military action should be approved by US Congress.
The motion was not agreed to, 49 US senators voting in favour, but 51 voting against.
„This report reveals a disturbing pattern of communication failures and negligence that culminated in a preventable tragedy,“ Paul, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, wrote in the report. „What happened was inexcusable and the consequences imposed for the failures so far do not reflect the severity of the situation.“
The report accuses then-Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle of „falsely“ testifying to Congress that „no USSS asset requests were denied for the Butler rally.“ Cheatle resigned nearly a year ago after testifying before Congress.
(Jun 8, 2023)
(08.06.2023)
Congress voted to repeal the 1991 and 2002 AUMFs in March. Paul’s amendment to that legislation that would have also repealed the 2001 AUMF failed 9-86.
The Republican senator explained the difficulties he’s had with other Republicans in trying to rollback AUMF during a foreign policy conference hosted by The American Conservative on Thursday.
“I have good news and bad news,” Paul told the audience. “The good news is that Congress finally voted to end a war. The bad news is the war they voted to end had already been over for about 15 years.”
(09.06.2023)
Three Republicans — Todd Young of Indiana, Ohio’s Rob Portman, and Rand Paul of Kentucky — voted with all the panel’s Democrats for repeal, with some Republicans who opposed the move Wednesday arguing that though they support scrapping both AUMFs, the time is not right amid rising tensions with neighboring Iran.
The nation‘s top infectious diseases doctor Anthony Fauci on Thursday clashed with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) over the need for people to continue wearing masks once they‘ve already been infected with or vaccinated against COVID-19.
“The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appear to have increasingly abused emergency authorities to justify the use of force against Americans exercising their right to peaceful assembly,” wrote House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.).
‚It amounts to illegally eavesdropping for political purposes‘ says Rand Paul discussing new information that Obama officials unmasked Michael Flynn
The Senate will vote on Paul‘s amendment Thursday. It rejected the Daines-Wyden amendment, which needed 60 votes to be included, on Wednesday.
Sen. Rand Paul on Tuesday introduced an amendment to the House-passed Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to protect Americans’ privacy, citing the case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn as an example of “abuse” and saying it “should never be allowed to happen again.”
Paul, R-Ky., who is an outspoken advocate for privacy reforms, proposed an amendment to the USA FREEDOM Reauthorization Act of 2020 – which passed the House on a bipartisan basis earlier this year – to protect Americans’ privacy, ensure due process and “reassert the Fourth Amendment.”
„As much as I respect you, Dr. Fauci, I don‘t think you‘re the end all. I don‘t think you‘re the one person that gets to make a decision,“ Paul said. „We can listen to your advice, but there are people on the other side saying there‘s not going to be a surge, that we can safely reopen the economy, and the facts will bear this out.“
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious diseases expert, defended his guidance to the federal government over how to respond to the Covid-19 outbreak, telling Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) that „I have never made myself out to be the ‚end-all'“ and warning against „cavalier“ thinking that children could be immune to the disease‘s effects.
The Senate is set to revive a fight over a shadowy surveillance court, bringing to a head a months-long stalemate that resulted in the lapse of three intelligence programs.
The looming debate, which will pit some of President Trump’s biggest allies against one another, comes on the heels of growing questions about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court after the Justice Department inspector general found widespread errors as part of an interim report on warrant applications.
(07.05.2020)
Under a deal struck by Senate leadership, senators will vote on three amendments: One from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) preventing FISA warrants from being used against Americans, one from Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on appointing outside advisers, and one from Sens. Steve Daines (R-Mont) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) to prevent law enforcement from obtaining internet browsing and search history without a warrant.
Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) are working to kill a House deal to reauthorize expiring intelligence programs and reform the surveillance court, throwing up an eleventh hour roadblock to the agreement.
Paul, a libertarian-minded Republican, is pushing for broader surveillance court reforms to be included as part of any bill that reauthorizes or extends the expiring provisions of the USA Freedom Act, a 2015 law that overhauled the country’s intelligence programs.
„The time is ripe now. It’s an inflection point. You’ve got Republicans coming around to this,“ Paul said.
Trump’s apparent support for including broader changes to the surveillance court associated with FISA comes as he’s railed repeatedly about his campaign being “spied” upon by the Obama-era FBI.
Progressives and libertarian-minded Republicans have long pushed to reform the court, arguing enough privacy protections and transparency aren’t given to individuals targeted for government surveillance.