Rand Paul on Flynn: 'Makes no sense' to investigate fellow Republicans (CNN)

[francisco]

(CNN) Republican Sen. Rand Paul said Tuesday an investigation into the resignation of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn would be excessive and it would not make sense to investigate other Republicans.

"I think that might be excessive. It looks like the President has handled the situation, and unless there's some kind of other evidence of malfeasance, this sounds like something that was internal White House politics and it looks like the President's handled it," Paul told the "Kilmeade and Friends" radio show.

More:

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/14/po...ons/index.html

[GunnyFreedom]

He may be correct about Flynn specifically in this case, but his rationale that it's because he's a Republican is horrible. Just bloody horrible. How about everything about this issue is already known and the misbehavior may amount to a lack of professionalism, but does not stand accused of the kind of criminal activity necessitating a Congressional investigation, and that he has resigned his post. With no criminal charges or impeachment proceeding hanging in the balance what would be the point of an investigation?

But that is unique to this situation, and his appointment as a Republican has nothing to do with it. I get that he just won massive brownie points with the GOP party line voters, but the extent to which he erodes his own base by making this a party thing will not be made up by the support he gains amongst activist partisan Republicans.

He should have made the argument that the specifics of this case make a Congressional investigation pointless and left partisanship out altogether. Now, next time Rand makes a stink on anything important the left will automatically color him a GOP establishment shill, even when he's going against the GOP establishment. Facts will be irrelevant to the narrative. Adding partisanship as a reason not to investigate Flynn was pretty dumb.

[asurfaholic]

I understand where you are coming from but I think the response didn't specifically mean "oh no gotta protect our republican brotherhood..." but rather that the case is isolated and doesn't think there should be a witch hunt feeding frenzy at all the levels of republicans.

In short, my take of it was that this is a Flynn problem, not a republican problem.

I'm normally very sensitive to those kind of partisan comments.

[EBounding]

I think Rand really wants to get his healthcare bill passed.

[CaptUSA]

He may be correct about Flynn specifically in this case, but his rationale that it's because he's a Republican is horrible. Just bloody horrible. How about everything about this issue is already known and the misbehavior may amount to a lack of professionalism, but does not stand accused of the kind of criminal activity necessitating a Congressional investigation, and that he has resigned his post. With no criminal charges or impeachment proceeding hanging in the balance what would be the point of an investigation?

But that is unique to this situation, and his appointment as a Republican has nothing to do with it. I get that he just won massive brownie points with the GOP party line voters, but the extent to which he erodes his own base by making this a party thing will not be made up by the support he gains amongst activist partisan Republicans.

He should have made the argument that the specifics of this case make a Congressional investigation pointless and left partisanship out altogether. Now, next time Rand makes a stink on anything important the left will automatically color him a GOP establishment shill, even when he's going against the GOP establishment. Facts will be irrelevant to the narrative. Adding partisanship as a reason not to investigate Flynn was pretty dumb.

I agree exactly. It seems like he's really trying to build some political capital for something. Hopefully, it's his ACA replacement. But this is just as distasteful as the McConnell endorsement. It seems like he doesn't understand that any capital he builds will be swiped away from him at the last minute if it suits their immediate needs. They'll hang him out to dry on health care, regardless of what arrows he takes for the team.

[jmdrake]

More:

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/14/po...ons/index.html

Okay. Pet peeve of mine is when people post stories about Ron or Rand Paul without posting the quote of what they actually said. So here's the full article, Rand's quote in bold.

(CNN)Republican Sen. Rand Paul said Tuesday an investigation into the resignation of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn would be excessive and it would not make sense to investigate other Republicans.
"I think that might be excessive. It looks like the President has handled the situation, and unless there's some kind of other evidence of malfeasance, this sounds like something that was internal White House politics and it looks like the President's handled it," Paul told the "Kilmeade and Friends" radio show.

Flynn resigned Monday evening amid revelations that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about conversations he had in December with Russia's ambassador to the US about sanctions placed on Russia. Pence had defended Flynn on television and denied he discussed sanctions after initial reports of the conversations.
And while several other Republican senators have called for investigation of the incident, Paul said it would not make sense to have more investigations, especially of fellow Republicans.

"I just don't think it's useful to be doing investigation after investigation, particularly of your own party. We'll never even get started with doing the things we need to do, like repealing Obamacare, if we're spending our whole time having Republicans investigate Republicans. I think it makes no sense."

And.....Rand's right. There are plenty of democrats lining up to do whatever investigation they can into the Trump administration. Republicans investigated everything democrat as well. For republicans to jump on the bandwagon of investigating republicans when there is little evidence of malfeasance makes no sense. I know...I know...we want democrats to be willing to investigate democrats. But guess what? They aren't. If a republican investigates a republican it lends credence to the idea that the republican being investigated must have done something "really really bad" because otherwise, why would republicans investigate him? So...unless Flynn did something really really bad......

[specsaregood]

Okay. Pet peeve of mine is when people post stories about Ron or Rand Paul without posting the quote of what they actually said. So here's the full article, Rand's quote in bold.

thx jmdrake, I was just about to go digging for it. As expected, the quote excerpted in the title is misleading.

[GunnyFreedom]

Misleading clickbait. Should have figured when I saw "CNN" in the source URL. :-/

The actual quote is a bit cringe-worthy but nothing whatever like how CNN characterized it.

Looks like I got taken by a fake news story.

[Matt Collins]

When he speaks extemporaneously it is a trainwreck and has been since day one :-(

[RonPaulMall]

I agree exactly. It seems like he's really trying to build some political capital for something. Hopefully, it's his ACA replacement. But this is just as distasteful as the McConnell endorsement. It seems like he doesn't understand that any capital he builds will be swiped away from him at the last minute if it suits their immediate needs. They'll hang him out to dry on health care, regardless of what arrows he takes for the team.

Disagree. Paul is not trying to "build political capital". He's implicitly calling out Republicans that want to investigate Trump over the Fake Russian News Story. This is a preemptive strike against McCain, Graham, and all the other neocon stooges and their willing allies in the GOP Leadership.

Paul understands the real dynamic at work. The GOP Establishment wants to sabotage Trump and gin up a war with Russia just as badly as the Dems and the Media.