Rand Paul

Republican Presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 15, 2015, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to examine the need to reform asset forfeiture

(Andrew Harnik, Associated Press)

Today's Rand Paul news:

Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul was among 43 Republican Senators to oppose the confirmation of Loretta Lynch as U.S. Attorney General: The Washington Post

Paul, who last year conducted a 13-hour Senate "filibuster" to seek an Obama administration promise to not use unmanned drones to kill Americans on U.S. soil who aren't involved in combat, issued a "surprisingly bland statement" in response to news that a January drone strike on an al Qaeda compound had unintentionally killed American and Italian hostages held by the group: The Wall Street Journal

Paul's statement, which did not mention drones, said: "It is a tragedy that these American hostages lost their lives. My prayers and thoughts are with their families."

Paul suggested the January strikes were different from the operations he previously criticized.

"I don't think there's a question of whether or not you're involving yourself in the war if you're holding hostages. The things I've pointed out in the past have been more with regard to people not involved with a war zone or with combat," Paul said on Thursday afternoon. "If these two people are American citizens and they were sitting in Cairo and we suspected them of a problem, then I would rather ... have the police go in: Politico



