'Posse of good ol' boys': MAGA senator wants citizen ‘pirates’ to hunt down drug cartels

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) suggested that private citizens – which he referred to as “privateers” – should be allowed to chase down Mexican drug cartels and receive a profit for their bounty as a way of easing risk to United States military personnel.

Lee floated the idea of the United States sanctioning state-sponsored piracy – a throwback to the American Revolution – Wednesday in a Fox News interview on the “Will Cain Show.”

“The last we heard from you, you were ready to put a posse together of good ol' boys ready to take on the Mexican drug cartels. Are we still heading for that – private citizens taking on the drug cartel at the border?” Cain asked.

“Privateers is what they’re called,” Lee said. “Letters of marque authorize privateers – pirates essentially – to carry out acts of piracy, if you will, outside of the United States, bringing the spoils back to the United States to share in the proceeds.”

The MAGA senator added his unusual and inherently dangerous plan would be a way that the U.S. “could take on the cartels without actually deploying U.S. military personnel.”

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“Incentivize those who are willing to incur the risk to go down there and deprive them of their assets, to return to the United States and receive a reward, commensurate with what they’re able to seize,” Lee told viewers Wednesday.

But the lawmaker acknowledged his plan could face obstacles on Capitol Hill – even in a political environment where Republicans are graced with a rare government trifecta.

“It hasn’t happened in a couple of centuries,” Lee said. “So I’m not going to kid you here into thinking that this is a certainty to pass – what I’m saying is it should be considered.”

He concluded his full-throated endorsement of legalized piracy against international drug cartels by invoking George Washington, who he said “was a privateer himself." Lee added: it “was fairly common at the time of the American Revolution.”

“I would love it if Congress were to pass this,” Lee said. Cain, gushing over the idea throughout the interview, framed it as “taking the fight to the Mexican drug cartels”

Watch the clip below or watch this link.