Fox News "The Ingraham Angle" - Interview with Rand Paul
Interview
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Joining me now, Rand Paul, Republican Senator from Kentucky and author of the fantastic, go out and get it, new book, "The Case Against Socialism." Your kids need to read it, college kids, high school kids, adults who toy with this liberalism idea and socialism idea. Senator Paul, we'll get to your book.
You have long opposed this perpetual interventionist policy in the Middle East, long before yours truly woke up and smelled the coffee. But what do you think about John Bolton and this idea the president has that he's behind these leaks?
SEN. RAND PAUL, R-KY: It didn't take him too long. He was in New York within days of leaving the White House, or being asked to leave the White House, within days he was up there saying how terrible the president was and why we needed to invade North Korea and why we needed to be in Syria forever and why we needed to fix up Afghanistan after 19 years by staying there another 19 years.
So it doesn't surprise me that John Bolton might have his own agenda, and probably he defines a leak different than you and I do. But no, it wouldn't surprise me that he's part of this.
INGRAHAM: Today, President Trump seemed to walk back his Syria withdrawal plan ever so slightly, saying "As United States forces have defeated ISIS physical caliphate, United States troops coming out of Syria will now redeploy and remain in the region to monitor the situation. A small footprint of U.S. forces will remain at At Tanf Garrison in southern Syria to continue to disrupt remnants of ISIS." What is that? Is this the military-industrial complex saying no, you want? Or is this prudent, does it make sense given what could be happening, empowering Iran?
PAUL: I think the president gets the big picture, and he also gets the American people. When you even ask just veterans, U.S. veterans, was the Iraq War a good idea, over 60 percent of them now say the Iraq War wasn't a good idea. It destabilized the Middle East, emboldened Iran, made them worse. The president gets more than any other person I've ever met in elected office, particularly the presidency. He gets it.
So I think with Syria he gets it. He gets that the American people would rather, as somebody told me, would rather be defending the southern border of the United States than defending a border between Syria and Turkey. And I think that's absolutely true.
INGRAHAM: But he had Lindsey Graham was with him for a few hours, and then after that everything seemed to change. Lindsey Graham, speaking of him, I'm sure he loves your book, but he was attacking you kind of tonight about your position on Syria. Watch.
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SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-S.C., SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: Senator Paul is an avowed libertarian. I respect his point of view, but I think it's dangerous. If we abandon the Kurds, who is going to help us in the future? And the last thing we want is another front against Israel. Israel is worried as I speak tonight about Iran coming into Syria and getting the oil fields and being more powerful.
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PAUL: Lindsay has been wrong about every foreign policy decision since he's been up here. Let's say the Iraq War. The Iraq War actually led to less stability, led to a stronger Iran. How about Libya? He wanted to topple Gadhafi in Libya. What did that lead to? Chaos and more terrorism. So really I think we should discount the neoconservatives, the war caucus like Lindsey Graham, and listen more to the president who I think has his finger on the pulse of the people.
It's a really messy war. If Lindsey wants to go to war in this area, he should come back to Congress --
INGRAHAM: Vote on it.
PAUL: Have a vote. But who would we declare war on? Turkey? I don't know, the Free Syrian Army which used to be our allies? Assad? And really, is he going to explain to the mothers and fathers of these kids why they had to go war in Syria, why they were blown up?
INGRAHAM: I'm telling you, what I saw tonight in that debate where the Democrats are all now the war party. I've never seen anything like it. They've twisted themselves into pretzels, and now completely contradicting themselves on what they've been saying about these wars for a long time, unbelievable.
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