President Donald Trump and his Department of Defense appear increasingly likely to launch military action on the ground in Venezuela, but one Republican senator is warning that such a move could fracture the president’s supporters.Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican once known for his staunch support of Trump, appeared on CBS News’s Face the Nation Sunday where he was pressed about the possibility of a larger-scale military conflict in Venezuela. Paul said that this, along with the possibility of renewing military aid payments to Ukraine, could cause a major divide among the Republican Party and Trump’s MAGA supporters.“I think a lot of people, including myself, were attracted to the president because of his reticence to get us involved in foreign war,” Paul said in an interview with host Margaret Brennan.In recent months, Trump has approved numerous military strikes on boats sailing in the Caribbean Sea. The administration has claimed, with little to no evidence, that these vessels were engaged in criminal drug trafficking to the U.S. in collaboration with the Venezuelan government. Families of some of the individuals killed in these strikes have denied such claims and insist their family members were innocent.Reporting indicates the Trump administration could announce an escalation of the conflict with Venezuela, bolstered by an increased U.S. Navy presence around the coast of the South American nation. Experts say Trump and his advisors are pursuing a regime change in Venezuela to remove President Nicolás Maduro from office. The administration has also moved to designate the alleged Venezuelan cartel, Cartel de los Soles, as a terrorist organization, despite critics pointing out that the name is used to describe any given member of the Venezuelan government or military involved in the drug trade, not any sort of distinct, centralized criminal entity. Paul has been critical of this move and what it might mean for the administration’s intentions.“I think by doing this, they are pretending as if we are at war,” Paul, who is also chair of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, said on Monday. “They’re pretending as if they’ve gotten some imprimatur to do what they want. When you have war, the rules of engagement are lessened.”He also added: “I’ve been given zero, not one briefing because I am skeptical of what they are doing. They don’t brief me or the general Senate at all. A few hand-selected people may have gotten a briefing but I have not been invited to any briefings on Venezuela.”
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