'If people want to say I changed my position, it’s untrue,' Paul said. Paul on defense from drone backlash

Sen. Rand Paul spent 13 hours on the Senate floor staking out a very public position as the most anti-drone member of Congress.

But a month later, a backlash from fans and critics alike is brewing over comments he made on Fox Business News that seemed to fly in the face of the very cause he was championing.


For a politician like Paul — who has thrived politically on the grassroots libertarian support that he inherited largely from his father, Ron — appearing to wiggle away from that position could have detrimental consequences. Paul appears to be organizing for a 2016 presidential run and he will need that libertarian support to get off the ground.

( PHOTOS: Rand Paul filibuster highlights)

“If people want to say I changed my position, it’s untrue,” Paul told POLITICO on Thursday from the Capitol. “It’s the exact same position. It’s always been about opposition to targeted killing, doesn’t matter if it’s with a drone, a sniper rifle, a spear, a knife. I’m against targeted killings. What people don’t understand is that when there is a violent act going, a gun fight, when people are shooting back-and-forth and the police are being shot at, the police have always been allowed to use deadly force.

“That’s all I was trying to say on Neil Cavuto and people who say otherwise, I think, are up to some other nefarious motives.”

The outrage over the prospect that Paul could be changing his position came from both sides of the political spectrum. The headline on The Drudge Report, a site that rarely was kind to the senator’s father during the last presidential campaign, declared “Rand Learns to Love the Drone!”

( Also on POLITICO: Paul, Clinton, atop N.H. 2016 poll)

Paul senior political aide Jesse Benton contended that the controversy hadn’t done Paul any serious political damage.

“Rand is a grassroots champion and has a huge, devoted following that will be with him through thick and thin,” said Benton, who ran Ron Paul’s presidential campaign in 2012 and is managing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s reelection campaign . “There is a very small, but extremely vocal, group of contrarians that throw a tantrum anytime Rand does something they don’t quite understand, but the vast majority of the ever-growing Tea Party and Liberty movement is with him 100 percent.”

The dust-up began on Fox Business News on Tuesday when Paul made an argument that drones could be used to kill an armed American engaged in a robbery. During the filibuster, he generally argued that drones shouldn’t be used on American soil.

( PHOTOS: Rand Paul's career)

“I’ve never argued against any technology being used when you have an imminent threat, an active crime going on. If someone comes out of a liquor store with a weapon and fifty dollars in cash, I don’t care if a drone kills him or a policeman kills him,” Paul told host Neil Cavuto. “It’s different if they want to come fly over your hot tub or your yard just because they want to do surveillance on everyone and they want to watch your activities.”

The Kentucky senator used similar words in his filibuster at the end of March on the Senate floor, which at the time was praised by some liberals and libertarians as a reasoned and principled argument for civil liberties.

In his filibuster speech, Paul said he isn’t opposed to drones entirely and that the FBI could use them for “a real imminent, lethal threat.”

“Because it’s not so much the drone that we object to. If some guy’s robbing a liquor store two blocks from here and the policemen come up and he comes out brandishing a gun, he or she can be shot,” Paul said on the floor. “They once again don’t get Miranda Rights, they don’t get a trial, they don’t get anything. If you come out brandishing a weapon and people are threatened by it, you can be shot.”

Despite making that argument previously, it seemed to catch fire only after Paul appeared on Fox News and made similar comments.

Sensing those remarks were gaining traction, Paul quickly pushed back on critics, first releasing a statement that seemed to back away from his remarks to Cavuto.

But the statement seemed to make the situation worse by seeming to concede the shift.

“Armed drones should not be used in normal crime situations,” Paul said in a statement. “They only may only be considered in extraordinary, lethal situations where there is an ongoing, imminent threat.”

During an interview Wednesday with The Des Moines Register, the largest newspaper in Iowa, Paul tried to push back further.

“This is something that is completely manufactured and created by some left-wing blog,” Paul told The Register. “My statement on drones on Neil Cavuto two days ago was exactly the same thing I said during the 13-hour filibuster.”

Speaking with The Register also raised eyebrows since Iowa hosts the first presidential caucus in the country and Paul’s presidential aspirations are an open secret . He will speak at a Republican fundraiser in the state next month.

“We interviewed with Des Moines over a lot of things and they asked that question so I answered that question,” Paul told POLITICO.

Commentators on fan sites dedicated to former Rep. Ron Paul voiced doubt about whether Rand would uphold libertarian principals. Craig Robinson, the lead blogger of The Iowa Republican who has been critical of Rand Paul’s foreign policy positions before, tweeted, “How can you stand with Rand when you don’t know where Rand stands?”

Liberal Forbes columnist Rick Ungar, who had praised Paul in the wake of the drone filibuster, said his previous praise was, “too good to be true.”

Paul said he hasn’t personally received any pushback or complaints from his supporters over the drone remarks.

Those arguing Paul has changed his position point to the senator’s opening words during his filibuster.

“No American should be killed by a drone on American soil without first being charged with a crime, without first being found to be guilty by a court,” he said to start the filibuster.

This article tagged under: Drones

Rand Paul