U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing titled "U.S. Policy Towards Venezuela", on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 28, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) cornered Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing about U.S. policy toward Venezuela.
When it came time for his few moments of questioning, Paul asked Rubio a hypothetical question: If a foreign country bombed U.S. air defense missiles, captured and removed President Donald Trump, and then blockaded the country, "would that be considered an act of war?"
"Well, I think your question is about — and I will acknowledge you've been very consistent on all these points the entire career ... no matter who's in charge — so, I will point to two things. The first is that it's hard for us to conceive that an operation that lasted about 4.5 hours and was a law enforcement operation to capture someone we don't recognize as a head of state, indicted in the United States, wanted with a $50 million [bounty]."
Paul interrupted, repeating his hypothetical about a "very short" operation where "nobody dies on our side" but the U.S. president is nonetheless captured by a foreign nation.
"Would it be an act of war?" Paul asked again.
Rubio said that the administration doesn't believe that what was done in Venezuela came anywhere close to "the constitutional definition of war."
But Paul persisted, asking again if it would be an act of war if someone else did the same to the U.S. president.
"Nobody dies. Few casualties. They're in and out. Boom! It's a perfect military operation. Would that be an act of war? Of course it would be an act of war," he exclaimed. "I'm probably the most anti-war person in the senate, and I would vote to declare war."
Paul believes in a more Libertarian isolationist foreign policy.
"So, I think we need to at least acknowledge that this is a one-way argument," he continued. "One-way arguments that don't rebound, that you can't apply to yourselves, that cannot be universally applied are bad arguments."
Rubio cut in at one point to say that Trump didn't "remove an elected official," noting that Nicolás Maduro was not elected and was an "indicted drug trafficker in the United States."
"Our president said [former President Joe] Biden wasn't really the president," Paul quipped.