Paul, Rubio, Cruz Face Off Over Iran Sanctions1:01
ABC News #39; Jonathan Karl moderated the first 2016 presidential forum of the year with Sens. Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio. ABC News #39; Jonathan Karl moderated the first 2016 presidential...
By: Helen Bloomer
Go here to see the original:
Paul, Rubio, Cruz Face Off Over Iran Sanctions1:01 - Video
WASHINGTON Rand Paul is demonstrating how he could disrupt the Republican presidential field if he seeks the nomination, sparring with potential rivals over Iran, Cuba and the Pentagon's budget in a face-to-face forum that offered an early preview of the feisty policy debate to come.
The Kentucky Republican joined fellow first-term senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida on stage Sunday evening in California for a summit organized by Freedom Partners. That group is the central hub of the powerful network of organizations backed by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch.
Each likely candidate has broad backing from tea party activists, who helped push them to victory over establishment-minded rivals in their most recent races. But a split is already starting to emerge even before they formally decide if they will run, and Paul seems to be an eager wedge.
"I'm a big fan of trying the diplomatic option as long as we can," Paul said of talks with Iran over its nuclear plan. "I do think diplomacy is better than war."
Lawmakers from both parties are pushing for a new round of sanctions against Iran. The White House and foreign leaders have urged Congress to not do that, for fear it would agitate Iran and prompt them to end negotiations over its nuclear abilities.
Cruz and Rubio were sharply critical of negotiations, backed by President Barack Obama.
"This is the worst negotiation in the history of mankind," Cruz said, predicting an Iranian nuclear strike in "Tel Aviv, New York or Los Angeles."
Added Rubio: "At this pace, in five years, we're going to build the bomb for them."
Paul urged his colleagues to have patience. "Are you ready to send ground troops into Iran?"
Cruz was having none of it. "The problem with Iran is Khomeini and the mullahs are radical Islamic nutcases," he said.
Read this article:
Previewing policy debate to come among 2016 hopefuls, Rand Paul spars with Cruz, Rubio
Unlike his reflexively anti-interventionist father, Rand Paul cannot be easily pigeonholed on foreign policy. Once a fierce Iraq War critic who charged that the U.S. toppled Saddam Hussein to benefit Halliburton, a company once helmed by Dick Cheney, he also crusaded against a ground war in Syria, declaring he would not send my son into that mess.But as he moves toward a 2016 presidential bid, the erstwhile critic of intervention in Syria also backed air strikes against the Islamic State militant group there, andreversed his longstanding opposition to foreign aid for Israel, abandoning a stance that was anathema to the GOP. Although his fathers associates have voiced disturbingly conspiracy-minded views concerning the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Paul has staked out a firm position against Russian aggression, indicating that his generally anti-interventionist impulses apply to more than just the United States.
So it may be hard to neatly classify Paul a hawk or a dove, even if theres an undercurrent of skepticism about U.S. intervention that defines his foreign policy approach. And theres little doubt that some of Pauls policy reversals chiefly his newfound support for Israel aid are borne of political cynicism, pure and simple. His most fervent supporters may insist otherwise, but Paul is a politician like any other driven by a mix of sincere conviction and shrewd calculation.
Thats what makes Pauls approach to Iran particularly noteworthy.
In 2013, members of Congress could have opposed the administration on Syria from a number of directions the administrations effort to oust Bashar al-Assad with an air campaign was too little, too late; deposing Assad would embolden even more unsavory cast of characters; the White House failed to articulate a clear rationale for why removing Assad served a vital interest. For some Republicans including those like Marco Rubio who had earlier endorsed actions similar to what the White House ultimately proposed the dreaded Obama stamp of approval was apparently cause enough for a flip-flop.
But Iran presents policymakers a simpler set of choices.
On the one side is the international community, backed by the so-called P5 + 1 negotiators, a group including diplomats from the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France , and Germany, who are working ahead of a June 30 deadline to hammer out an accord on Irans disputed nuclear program. On the other side are bipartisan American skeptics, including Sens. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Mark Kirk (R-IL), who want to vote on a crippling new round of sanctions against Iran before the June 30 deadline. Although sanctions would not kick in until after June 30, arms control experts and international officials warn that a vote would convey to the Iranians that the U.S. is not negotiating in good faith, and may also fracture the multilateral coalition by alienating countries like Russia and China. The skeptics have a powerful ally in their corner: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is slated to address Congress on the subject next month, just a month before his right-wing government faces a potentially close re-election challenge.
Netanyahus forthcoming speech provides Republicans further opportunity to assail a president theyve obstructed at every turn, while further lionizing a man who has shown no serious interest in forging a Mideast peace, whether with his Palestinian neighbors or vis-a-vis Iran. But Paul isnt jumping on the anti-diplomacy bandwagon and hes coming hard after fellow Republican senators whom he sees as too eager to scuttle a potentially historic accord with Tehran.
Im a big fan of trying the diplomatic option as long as we can, Paul told a Koch brothers-sponsored forum this weekend, per Think Progress Igor Volsky.I do think diplomacy is better than war.
But Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), like Paul a potential presidential aspirant in 2016, warned that an Iranian bomb could hit Tel Aviv, New York or Los Angeles, with Rubio, another potential candidate, warningAt this pace, in five years, were going to build the bomb for them.
Paul had tough questions for such hawks.
See the original post here:
Rand Pauls big foreign policy test: Can he beat back the Iran hawks?
HOUSTON Rand Paul wants to lead the United States. On Saturday in Texas, his father was speaking at a conference about how to leave it.
"A lot of times people think secession, they paint it as an absolute negative," said former representative Ron Paul (R-Tex.). After all, Paul said, the American Revolution was a kind of secession. "You mean we should have been obedient to the king forever? So it's all in the way you look at it."
This weekend was a crucial one for Rand Paul, the Republican senator from Kentucky and undeclared candidate for the presidency. He was in California, trying to line up donors at an opulent retreat organized by the billionaire Koch brothers.
At the same time, his father retired after 12 terms in Congress and three presidential runs was in the ballroom of an airport hotel here, the final speaker at "a one-day seminar in breaking away from the central state." He followed a series of speakers who said that the U.S. economy and political establishment were tottering and that the best response might be for states, counties and even individuals to break away.
"The America we thought we knew, ladies and gentlemen, is a mirage. It's a memory. It's a foreign country," Jeff Deist, Ron Paul's former press secretary and chief of staff, told the group. "And that's precisely why we should take secession seriously."
The contrasting scenes this weekend illuminate the odd situation of the Pauls as the 2016 campaign season begins. They are a father and son tied together but running in opposite directions.
Rand, 52, is contemplating a presidential run at its heart, an act of optimism. He is moderating some hard-line positions and introducing himself to donors and voters. At the same time, Ron, 79, has embraced a role as libertarianism's prophet of doom, telling his supporters that the United States is headed for catastrophes and might actually need catastrophes to get on the right track
Which puts Rand Paul in the unusual position of trying to win over the country while his father says it is going down the tubes.
Asked by a reporter whether he was worried about making trouble for his son's presidential campaign by talking about secession here, Ron Paul deflected the blame to the press: "If we had decent reporters, there would never be any problems. You think you could ever meet one? Have a heart, buddy."
A spokesman for Rand Paul said he was not available to comment for this story. Both Pauls have said that if Rand Paul runs for president, his father will not campaign with him.
Read the original:
Are Ron Paul's hard-core stands a problem for son's presidential bid?
Rand Paul: Mitt Romney is "yesterday #39;s news"
Sign the petition to arrest Marxist collaborator Marco Rubio at mofopolitics.com.
By: andrew yezen
Read more:
Rand Paul: Mitt Romney is "yesterday's news" - Video