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Sen. Rand Paul has come out against President Donald Trumps decision to attack Syria on Thursday, calling it unconstitutional.

The president really doesnt have the authority under the constitution to initiate war, Paul said during an interview on Fox Business on Friday.

The U.S. military launched the surprise airstrike on a Syrian airfield Thursday evening. The move came in response to a chemical weapons attack on civilians the administration believes was launched by the countrys embattled leader, Bashar Assad, and killed dozens of people.

The U.S. has conducted airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria since 2014, but Thursdays is the first against the Syrian government.

Paul has long spoken out against the U.S. taking military action in Syria and the Middle East. On Friday, he warned that the attack could strain relations with Russia, a close ally of Syrias.

The ramifications could be extreme they may not but there is a great danger in bumping up against another nuclear power, Paul said.

U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican representing northern and eastern Kentucky, also voiced opposition to Trumps attack, via Twitter.

President Trump should have sought Congressional approval for so many reasons starting with the #Constitution requires it,' Massie tweeted.

Meanwhile, Kentuckys other U.S. Senator, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell,threw his support behind Trumps actions.

The strike was well-planned, well-executed, was certainly more than a pin-prick and sends a message not only to Assad that using chemical weapons again is something he cannot do with impunity, McConnell said during a news conference on Friday.

McConnell notably opposed President Barack Obamas failed request in 2013 for an authorization to use military force against the Syrian government.

On Friday, McConnell said he couldnt see a resolution to the Syrian conflict that keeps Assad in power.

I just cant imagine after all the butchering of his own people that hes been doing now for four, five years that there could be any successful conclusion to this chaos with him still there, McConnell said.

U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, the only Democratic member of Kentuckys federal delegation, issued a statement in support of the strike against Syria, which he said was in response to criminal and inhumane actions.

But he also called on Trump to seek Congressional approval for future actions against the country.

I hope that Speaker Ryan and Majority Leader McConnell will move quickly to seek the congressional approval of yesterdays action, so that the constitutional prerogatives of Congresss war-making authority are asserted, Yarmuth said. No escalation of military activity in Syria or the region can proceed without explicit congressional approval.

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Rand Paul Calls Syria Airstrikes Unconstitutional - 89.3 WFPL

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul took aim at the "one-sided" contract that airlines give its customers, responding to this week's United Airlines controversy in which a man was forcibly removed and bloodied after refusing to give up his seat on an overbooked plane.

"But it is [in] their 30,000 word contract so it must be ok," Paul said in the first of a pair of tweets Wednesday, mocking the airline. Paul was referencing an opinion piece from City Journal titled, "May I drag you from your seat?: Corporate cluelessness is leading to a decline in institutional confidence."

"We retain the right to take back the ticket you paid for, handcuff you, beat you about the head & bloody you," Paul continued his mock impression of a United Airlines contract in a follow-up tweet. He added: "This contract seems one sided."

The controversy started when video appeared online showing David Dao, a 69-year-old Vietnamese-American doctor, struggled with security guards and later, seemingly unconscious, being dragged off the overbooked United Airlines plane. The widespread backlash has prompted United CEO Oscar Munoz to apologize for the "horrific event" and said the company takes full responsibility and "will work to make it right."

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Rand Paul mocks United contract: We will 'bloody you' - Washington Examiner

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, addresses a crowd during a rally at the Western Republican Leadership Conference, in Sandy, Utah, April 25, 2014.(Photo: Associated Press)

U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, joined Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, in introducing a bill Tuesday that would require presidents to get congressional approval before taking military action over humanitarian concerns.

The bill comes on the heels of President Donald Trumps order last week to fire missiles at a Syrian air base in response to that governments use of chemical weapons in an earlier attack.

"Since the U.S. cruise missile strikes against the Shayrat Air Base in Syria last week, President Trump and several senior administration officials have indicated that the United States may be prompted to act again in retaliation to other attacks against civilians or for broader humanitarian purposes," Lee said in a written release. "We are all angered by the pictures and stories from Syria in recent years, and the desire to retaliate for these unfathomable attacks is understandable. However, over the past 200 years, the separate and distinct roles of the executive and the legislative branches to declare war, launch military attacks, and defend against or retaliate for an attack against the United States have become blurred."

The proposed legislation, the Military Humanitarian Operations Act, would require congressional approval before any military operations conducted to fulfill a humanitarian purpose where hostilities are anticipated.

"While such operations and interventions are well intentioned, recent history has shown they are often risky and may result in unintended consequences that are detrimental to our national security, Lee said.

Follow David DeMille on Twitter, @SpectrumDeMille, and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/SpectrumDeMille. Call him at 435-674-6261.

Read or Share this story: http://www.thespectrum.com/story/news/2017/04/11/mike-lee-joins-rand-paul-bill-requiring-congressional-approval-syria-type-military-action/100328330/

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Mike Lee joins Rand Paul on bill requiring congressional approval ... - St. George Daily Spectrum

A shocking statistic from the Department of Homeland Security has appeared recently shown that cell phone searches of U.S. citizens reentering the country has gone from 5,000 in 2015 to 25,000 in 2016.

This is something Kentucky Senator Rand Paul finds obscene, or so he puts it when he was questioning DHS Secretary John Kelly during a hearing for the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Weve gone from 5,000 people having their cell phones searched, to 25,000, said Paul. We are denying people entry who are citizens or green card holders who are coming back home, and your department is saying to them you cannot return to your home without giving us your fingerprint, and giving us all the data on your phone.

Paul made it clear that he understands the difference between a citizen, and a visitor, and that sometimes safety measures are warranted, sometimes in the form of denying someone entry into the country, however this does not need to apply to citizens.

I could travel abroad, and be told I cannot enter America unless I let you look at my phone. Thats obscene, said Paul.

Kelly maintained that the reported statistics were untrue, and that citizens were not being denied entry without giving up their phones. However, Paul maintains that the DHSs own numbers dont lie.

Watch the exchange below:

Due to this information, a bipartisan bill has been drawn up that would require border agents to have a warrant before they searched the phones of any American citizen, or green card holder. According to CNN, the legislation has been introduced in both the House, and Senate, by both Democrats, and Republicans.

Privacy hawks Sens. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, and Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, introduced it in the Senate, and Reps. Jared Polis, a Democrat from Colorado, and Blake Farenthold, a Republican from Texas, sponsored it in the House.

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Rand Paul: Citizens reentering US having their phones searched is 'obscene' - TheBlaze.com

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on Saturday criticized President Trump's decision to launch a missile strike on a Syrian airfield, saying the Trump administration should have sought input from Congress first.

"You know, I guess what I've been more concerned is not the military aspects of the mission or even whether or not it will have any significance," Paul said on CNN. "My concern has been mostly that this is an inappropriate way to begin a war, that the Constitution says war begins with a vote in Congress."

Paul, whose libertarian leanings have led him to advocate for far less foreign intervention than most other members of his party, pointed to the example George W. Bush set with his decision to seek an official Authorization for Use of Military Force from lawmakers after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

"Even George Bush, who was often treated mercilessly by the media as being so far out there, he came to Congress and asked to go to war against the Taliban and those who attacked us on 9/11," Paul said. "He also did the same in Iraq."

Congressional leaders have signaled a willingness to consider the Trump administration's request to pursue additional military actions in Syria if the president decides to put one forward, although few lawmakers have indicated that they are open to returning from their two-week recess to debate an AUMF.

"I think this is a wrongheaded notion, that we just skip the most important step, and that is whether or not we should go to war," Paul said.

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Rand Paul: Syria strike an 'inappropriate way to begin a war' - Washington Examiner