Republican senator takes aim at JD Vance: 'What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment'



Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky once again bucked his party, this time taking aim at Vice President JD Vance.

The Trump administration claimed to have successfully struck a Venezuelan drug boat on Tuesday, killing 11 traffickers identified as members of the Tren de Aragua gang. Vance and other high-profile Republicans championed the strike, calling it the "highest and best use of our military."

'Did he ever read To Kill a Mockingbird?'

Vance experienced pushback from the usual suspects like Brian Krassenstein, who called the strike a "war crime." Vance promptly responded by saying, "I don't give a s**t what you call it."

While the left raged on about Vance's comments, Paul joined the chorus.

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Paul criticized the military action for not providing the Venezuelan alleged drug traffickers due process before being killed.

"JD 'I don’t give a s**t' Vance says killing people he accuses of a crime is the 'highest and best use of the military,'" Paul said in a post on X. "Did he ever read To Kill a Mockingbird? Did he ever wonder what might happen if the accused were immediately executed without trial or representation??

"What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial."

Paul's criticism was met with backlash from some of his Republican colleagues who accused Paul of "defending foreign terrorist drug traffickers."

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Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

"What's really despicable is defending foreign terrorist drug traffickers who are *directly* responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans in Kentucky and Ohio," Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio said in a post on X. "JD understands that our first responsibility is to protect the life and liberty of American citizens."

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Neocons are back — and they’re botching Trump’s Latin America policy



A quiet but dangerous conflict is brewing within President Trump’s foreign policy team — a battle between the true red America First voices who made his first term successful and the same old neoconservative ideologues who have derailed U.S. diplomacy for decades.

Heightened by the bombing of Iran, this clash made headlines again earlier this month. This time, it was over botched negotiations over the return of Americans currently held by the socialist Venezuelan government.

Marco Rubio’s hatred of Latin American socialism is clear, but that shouldn’t come at a strategic cost to our country.

Trump’s special envoy Richard Grenell, a realist to his core, was on the verge of brokering a deal that would have secured the release of imprisoned Americans in exchange for Chevron’s continued operations in Venezuela. It was classic Trump diplomacy: bold, transactional, results-oriented.

But Secretary of State Marco Rubio intervened. The State Department made a much less attractive and watered-down proposal to repatriate 250 Venezuelan aliens in exchange for the American prisoners. The interests of the U.S. oil industry were completely ignored.

Wires were crossed, and the talks collapsed.

Two critical lessons

Two lessons are evident: The first and most obvious is that Grenell is responsible for talks with Venezuela and that he is the only U.S. figure Venezuela trusts — a point that shouldn’t be undermined.

The second is that Trump’s transactional diplomacy, represented by Grenell, works — when it’s allowed to. We’ve seen this with Steve Witkoff’s trips to the Middle East and the president’s own handling of NATO.

The Venezuelan government wants to negotiate with Grenell and Grenell alone — and for good reason. He speaks the language of leverage, not lectures. As special envoy, he has built a diplomatic channel that has delivered in the past. In January, for example, Grenell secured the release of six Americans, a great achievement.

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Photo by PEDRO MATTEY/AFP via Getty Images

In contrast, Venezuela all but refuses to communicate with Rubio. They see him as persona non grata. His methods, based on intervention and blunt force, are bound to fail.

This is particularly true now that we live in a world where U.S. dominance is not guaranteed. And as the United States has isolated Venezuela, the Latin American nation has been pushed deeper into Beijing’s orbit.

Oil exports to China, for example, have surged since Chevron’s license to operate was canceled in May. In turn, Venezuelan exports to the U.S. and its capitalist allies have cratered.

The strategic cost

Rubio’s hatred of Latin American socialism is clear, but that shouldn’t come at a strategic cost to our country. This isn’t a diplomatic blunder. It’s a threat to U.S. energy security and a betrayal of Trump’s promise to bring down prices at the pump.

We want Venezuelan oil and gas to head to the U.S. Gulf Coast, not Beijing. We need to protect the Monroe Doctrine, which says that no outside power should have a foothold in the Western Hemisphere.

The importance of energy security cannot be overstated. For an administration elected in large part on its promise to cut gas prices, it is a big mistake to turn our backs on Venezuela’s hydrocarbon reserves, the largest on earth.

Doing so increases American dependence on Canadian oil — not a smart move as we fight a trade war with Prime Minister Mark Carney — and on suppliers in a volatile Middle East, where Iran still looms large.

This is not to mention that the policy of isolation is damaging to Chevron, a champion of the American oil industry.

Under its former special license, Chevron was pumping out nearly a quarter of a million barrels of oil per day. This went straight to thirsty refiners on the U.S. Gulf Coast, which depend on Venezuela’s unique heavy crude oil. That lifeline has been cut, and it’s American consumers who will pay the price.

Grenell understood this and so wrapped Chevron’s status into his negotiations, a deal that put American interests first. Rubio, on the other hand, prioritized an ideological pursuit of regime change over American energy security.

President Trump should intervene.

He praised Grenell’s successful negotiations in January and should make clear that Venezuela policy is not for Rubio to decide. The goal is clear: Bring our citizens home, restart Chevron’s work, and reassert U.S. influence in our own hemisphere.

Renew Grenell’s leverage

Grenell, with renewed powers, should return the United States to a policy of strategic engagement. That’s what America First really looks like. That’s the approach to foreign policy promised to us in 2024. That’s the MAGA way.

It’s time to put the neocons back in the box and go back to the bold, pragmatic diplomacy that made Trump’s first term — and will make his second — a victory for everyday Americans and a triumphant return to common sense.

The left rages over 59 white refugees — but defends killers



The left’s radical immigration agenda isn’t just dangerous, it’s hypocritical to the core. Some recent stories show just how radical leftists have become.

Let’s start with a story Blaze News reported this month that should infuriate every law-abiding American. A 42-year-old Venezuelan man — a known hitman tied to the brutal El Chamu gang and accused of four contract killings — was released into the United States after being caught crossing the Arizona border illegally in 2022. That’s right: arrested, deemed inadmissible, then set free.

Leftists' selective outrage reveals a disturbing truth: Their moral compass isn’t guided by justice or suffering. It’s guided by race and politics.

But it gets worse. The Biden administration granted this suspected murderer a work permit because, at the time, the U.S. wasn’t talking to Venezuela about taking back its criminals.

This man walked freely through our communities for nearly three years. He was finally arrested in February 2025 — not thanks to Biden but because President Donald Trump pressured Venezuela to resume accepting deportees. Immigration and Customs Enforcement picked him up in Grapevine, Texas, which happens to be in my backyard.

This is what happens when ideology overrides public safety. And it’s not an isolated case.

An activist judge

In Wisconsin, Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan was just indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly helping an illegal immigrant evade ICE agents. Dugan reportedly got “visibly angry,” confronted federal agents in her courtroom, and then snuck the man — who was facing battery charges and had been deported once before — out a private exit for the jury.

This man is accused of punching one victim 30 times and attacking a woman who tried to intervene. Both victims were hospitalized. But Dugan, a sitting judge, allegedly aided his escape. That’s not just reckless — it’s criminal.

And yet, as usual, the left rushed to glorify her. Some are actually comparing Judge Dugan to Harriet Tubman. I wish I were joking! Leftist lawyer Jeffrey Mandell and his friends at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel are likening her actions to a modern Underground Railroad — as if protecting a violent illegal alien compares to the rescue of fugitive slaves.

It’s beyond insulting. Harriet Tubman risked her life to free human beings from bondage. Judge Dugan risked the public’s safety to help a man accused of brutal violence. The left’s delusional moral equivalence here reveals exactly how twisted their priorities have become.

Blind eye to genocide

Yet, these priorities don’t apply if you don’t have the left’s approved skin color.

President Trump has made it a priority to deport illegal immigrants who have committed crimes. That’s what this is really about. But instead of recognizing the distinction between lawful immigration and criminal activity, the left screams that Trump wants to “kick out all immigrants” and destroy the American dream.

Then, when the administration offers refugee status to 59 Afrikaners fleeing persecution in South Africa, the same people lose their minds.

These are white farmers and their families — victims of racial violence, land seizures, and targeted killings. The South African government passed a law in 2024 that allows for the confiscation of land without compensation. Political rallies routinely feature chants of “Kill the Boer,” referring to white farmers. A political party leader led one such rally in 2023 — and it wasn’t subtle. The crowd chanted, “Shoot to kill!” with bloodthirsty fervor.

Elon Musk, a South African native, called it open incitement to genocide. He’s right.

You’d think the self-appointed champions of compassion would welcome these families with open arms. But no — they’re furious. MSNBC analyst Richard Stengel dismissed their plight as “apartheid nostalgia.” U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) called it “global apartheid.” And the Episcopal Church, which has helped resettle more than 100,000 refugees and proudly aids illegal aliens, publicly refused to help these 59 families. It even ended a 40-year partnership with the federal government over it.

Why? Because these refugees are white.

Narrative-driven immigration

In summary, the left welcomed a Venezuelan gang hitman into the country and handed him a work permit. Leftists are defending a judge who allegedly helped a violent offender escape ICE. They have no problem with 10 million illegal immigrants who flooded the country under President Biden. But when it comes to 59 South African farmers fleeing actual persecution?

They call it racism. They shut down programs. They rage on television.

This isn’t compassion. It’s a radical ideological agenda that says borders should be open to criminals — as long as they fit the narrative — and closed to those who don’t.

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Anna Moneymaker / Staff, SAUL LOEB / Contributor | Getty Images

It would be laughable if it weren’t so morally bankrupt.

Leftists' selective outrage reveals a disturbing truth: Their moral compass isn’t guided by justice or suffering. It’s guided by race and politics. Some victims are celebrated. Others are ignored, depending entirely on their skin color and the usefulness of their story.

America is at a crossroads. We can continue this reckless, backward approach — or we can choose sanity, security, and fairness. President Trump is trying to restore order, but the radical left is fighting him every step of the way. And if this latest circus has shown us anything, it’s that leftists are just getting started.

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Venezuela wrongfully detained Washington man under Biden — Trump admin bringing him home



A Washington state man held captive in Venezuela for months will soon be reunited with his family after Trump officials intervened in his case.

Joseph St. Clair — a veteran of the U.S. Air Force suffering from what his mother, Patti St. Clair, described as "severe PTSD" — went missing in November during the final weeks of the Biden administration after traveling to Colombia for treatment. Three months later, St. Clair's father, Scott St. Clair, received a call from the Colombian consulate claiming that Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro's regime had taken Joseph hostage.

The federal government officially declared St. Clair wrongfully detained.

'We are overwhelmed with joy and gratitude.'

"Can you imagine his fear? Can you imagine the isolation that he must be feeling battling his unseen scars in a foreign prison, unsure if help is even coming?" Patti St. Clair said at a "Bring Our Families Home" event in Washington, D.C., in April.

At some point after President Donald Trump retook office, Trump, presidential envoy for hostage affairs Sebastian Gorka, Adam Boehler, and U.S. special envoy Richard Grenell began negotiating with Venezuelan authorities to secure St. Clair's release.

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Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The talks must ultimately have been successful, because St. Clair was released to Grenell on Tuesday, his family said in a statement.

"This news came suddenly, and we are still processing it — but we are overwhelmed with joy and gratitude," his parents said in a statement.

Other details regarding his detainment and release remain unclear.

St. Clair served four tours in Afghanistan. He is originally from Hansville, Washington, along the shores of Puget Sound.

St. Clair was one of at least seven Americans detained in Venezuela since Maduro declared victory in a highly controversial election last July. Even the Biden administration questioned the results of the vote, with then-Sec. of State Antony Blinken expressing "serious concerns."

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Photo by JUAN BARRETO / AFP) (Photo by JUAN BARRETO/AFP via Getty Images

Six others were released back in February after Grenell met with Maduro.

Now that St. Clair has been released, at least 37 American hostages from countries including Afghanistan, Israel, Russia, and Kuwait have been released since Trump's inauguration in January.

"We remain in prayer and solidarity with the families of those who are still being held," the statement from the St. Clairs said. "We will never stop loving and supporting them as they continue their fight to be reunited with their loved ones."

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