Interview with Rand Paul: ‘I Can’t Support Anybody to Be Our Secretary of State Who Didn’t Learn the Lesson of Iraq’
For the libertarian-leaning senator, just about anybody would be better than John Bolton or Rudy Giuliani.
Robby Soave
Nov. 15, 2016
Sen. Rand Paul implored President-Elect Donald Trump not to pick Rudy Giuliani or John Bolton to run the State Department and suggested he would be inclined to vote against their confirmation.
In an interview with Reason, Paul described Bolton and Giuliani as representatives of "the most bellicose interventionist wing of any party" and the antithesis of the restrained foreign policy platform Trump ran on. The selection of either man would be a serious betrayal of Trump's supporters, who wanted a clean break from the rabid interventionism of the past GOP administration.
"I can't support anybody to be our secretary of state who didn't learn the lesson of the Iraq War," said Paul.
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Paul described Bolton as "unhinged."
"It concerns me that Trump would put someone in charge who is unhinged as far as believing in absolute and total intervention," he said.
Bolton would have almost no chance of getting Paul's support, unless the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations repudiated virtually everything he stands for. Giuliani would face a similarly uphill battle to persuade Paul, he said.
As Reason's Brian Doherty noted, Paul could make trouble for an unacceptable secretary of state pick. Paul sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is currently split 10-9. If he voted with the Democrats, he could certainly send a message—though this would not prevent the full Senate from voting to confirm, according to The Washington Post.
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