Ron and Rand Paul Cut Through the Foreign Policy Noise
Partisans flip and flop from hawks to doves and back. Not these two.

By JACK HUNTER
July 17, 2018

When Mitt Romney called Russia America’s “number one geopolitical foe” during the 2012 election campaign, Barack Obama mocked him: “The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back.” Vice President Joe Biden dismissed Romney as a “Cold War holdover.” Hillary Clinton said Romney was “looking backward.” John Kerry said “Mitt Romney talks like he’s only seen Russia by watching Rocky IV.”

Romney’s Russia warning came at a time when Republicans were eager to exploit President Obama’s hot mic comments to Russian president Dmitri Medvedev where he promised “more flexibility” on missile defense issues after the election. Romney, to the delight of Republican hawks and neoconservatives, was eager to portray Obama as capitulating, weak, and dangerous. For his part, Obama, who once vowed to “reset” U.S.-Russia relations, painted Romney as outdated for disparaging diplomacy.

But that was then. This week the Cold War seemed to be back in full force for many former Obama supporters, as President Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the wake of 12 Russian agents being indicted for allegedly meddling in the 2016 election.

Democrats have joined forces with Republican hawks and neoconservatives to declare Trump “weak” for engaging Russia. One MSNBC pundit said Trump’s NATO criticisms were the president “doing Vladimir Putin’s bidding.” New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait went full Alex Jones when he suggested that Trump may have been a Putin agent since 1987—a Manchurian Candidate-esque spin reminiscent of the original Red Scare. #TraitorTrump even trended on Twitter.

In the midst of this hysteria, Senator Rand Paul was asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday whether he thought Trump should demand that Putin acknowledge Russia’s meddling.

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