President Barack Obama has gotten support with the drone strike deaths of two hostages from a very unlikely source — Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.
"I tend not to want to blame the president for the loss of life here," the Republican lawmaker and 2016 presidential candidate told Fox News. "I think he was trying to do the right thing."
Obama has apologized for the deaths of hostages Warren Weinstein, a U.S. Agency for International Development worker, and Giovanni Lo Porto, an Italian aid worker, in drone strikes on the Pakistan/Afghanistan border.
Paul's statement seems a dramatic reversal of his attitude on drones. His past opposition to drone warfare has been well known, and his website still sells a "Don't Drone Me, Bro"
T-shirt, yet Paul took a forgiving stance toward Obama and the use of drones.
"You really don't get due process or anything like that if you are in a war zone," Paul told Fox News,
Bloomberg reported.
"I do think that there is a valuable use for drones and as much as I’m seen as an opponent of drones, in military and warfare, they do have some value. I think this is a difficult situation. You have hostages being held; some of them are American. You have people holding hostages; some of them are American," Paul said.
"I’ve been an opponent of using drones about people not in combat. However if you are holding hostages, you kind of are involved in combat. So I look at it the way it is in the United States. If there's a kidnapping in New York, the police don't have to have a warrant to go in."
In 2013, Paul had conducted a 13-hour filibuster against CIA Director John Brennan over U.S. drone policy,
USA Today reported.
Earlier this year, Paul told CNN that if a drone flies over his house, "They better beware, because I've got a shotgun,"
Politico reported.
However, Paul told Fox News, "So these people were in a war zone and probably got what was coming to them — the captors. Unfortunately, some innocent people lost their life."
Until his Fox appearance, Paul had said little about the drone deaths, only commenting, "It is a tragedy that these hostages lost their lives. My prayers and thoughts are with their families," USA Today reported.
Glenn Greenwald, founded of The Intercept, wrote on Twitter, "I don't get his strategy. He's never going to attract GOP hawks, so why dilute what makes him interesting/unique? If his big maverick view is now reduced to 'no drone killings of Americans on US soil,' it's hardly interesting," Bloomberg reported.
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