Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) urged President Donald Trump to show caution in aiding Iranian protesters, suggesting strikes could have the opposite of the intended effect the president wants.
Trump warned Iran not to kill the country’s protesters “because we’ll start shooting too,” adding that the United States is “ready to help” the protesters gain freedom. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is also fueling speculation the U.S. could step in soon, writing on X that “help is on the way.”
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Paul, however, is more cautious, but did say he is “hopeful” that a “freedom movement” could develop in Iran and overwhelm its government.
“The only problem I have with saying, ‘Oh, we’re going to bomb Iran,’ is that sometimes it has the opposite effect. So when you bomb a country, then people tend to rally around their own flag; they tend to see this is a foreign country coming in and bombing us, and so I don’t think it always has that effect. I wish the same as the president: I want success. I hope that the freedom movement survives. I hope that the Iranian government doesn’t kill the protesters, but it sounds like they already have. But I don’t know that bombing Iran will have the effect that is intended,” Paul said on ABC News’s This Week.
Paul added that despite wishing the Iranian people to gain freedom, he doesn’t believe it is the U.S.’s job to involve itself with “every freedom movement around the world.” He also said the best way to help the protesters is to encourage them to pursue a government that allows free elections.
“Plus, there is this sticking point of the Constitution that we don’t really let presidents bomb countries just when they feel like it. They’re supposed to ask the people through the Congress for permission,” Paul said.
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Paul was one of five Republican senators who broke with their party to advance a bipartisan measure that restricts further military operations against Venezuela without congressional approval. Prior to this vote, Paul described the U.S.’s action in Venezuela, including the capture of former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, as an “act of war.”
On Sunday, the senator said he’s told Trump this legislation is about “who has the power” to declare war, citing how the Founding Fathers divided this power since they were tired of war themselves. He said the attacks on Pearl Harbor or on 9/11 resulted in “nearly unanimous” votes for war, but other votes have been much closer, like the war in Iraq.