'We’re not talking about someone’s actively attacking America,' Paul said. | REUTERS Paul: Drone strike during dinner?

Sen. Rand Paul blasted Attorney General Eric Holder’s announcement that drone strikes could be carried out on U.S. soil under extreme circumstances, with the Kentucky Republican suggesting that means Americans could be killed while they’re “eating dinner” or “at a cafe.”

“The thing about the drone strike program is we’re not talking about someone’s actively attacking America — we’re not talking about planes flying into the World Trade Center,” Paul said on Fox News on Tuesday. “What we’re talking about is you’re eating dinner in your house, you’re eating at a cafe or you’re walking down the road.”


He continued: “That’s when these drone strikes can occur. It’s not about people involved in combat — it’s about people who they think might be.”

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On Tuesday, Holder responded to a letter Paul and other senators had sent inquiring about whether the government could use drones domestically.

“The question you have posed is entirely hypothetical, unlikely to occur, and one we hope no President will ever have to confront,” Holder responded.

Holder continued: “It is possible, I supposed, to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the Constitution and applicable laws of the United States for the President to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States. For example, the President could conceivably have no choice but to authorize the military to use such force if necessary to protect the homeland in the circumstances of a catastrophic attack like the ones suffered on December 7, 1941, and September 11, 2001.”

Paul said: “His response is, ‘We haven’t killed any Americans yet. We don’t intend to, but we might.’ And that’s pretty disturbing… .If you’re an American and you’re accused of a crime, one of the basic principles, one of the protections we’ve always had is, you get a trial.”