Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on Monday expressed his approval of President Donald Trump’s handling of Russia despite the tsunami of criticism the president faced after his press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“It’s gotten so ridiculous that someone has to stand up and say we should try to engage even our adversaries and open up our lines of communication,” Paul told Politico after the controversial press conference.
“We’re going to talk to the president about some small steps in order to try to thaw the relations between our countries,” the senator added, noting that he’s set to travel to Russia early next month to continue the dialogue that Trump started.
“Republicans that are making the criticism are either the pro-war Republicans like (Sen. John) McCain and (Sen. Lindsey) Graham or the anti-Trump ones like (Sen. Ben) Sasse,” he told Politico. “They are motivated by their persistent and consistent dislike of the president.”
Trump later tweeted: “Thank you @RandPaul, you really get it!” – READ MORE
[divider][/divider]Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Sunday said he believes it’s a “waste of time” to try to hold Russian President Vladimir Putin accountable for meddling in U.S. elections, arguing that the U.S. and other countries have engaged in similar behavior.
“I think because this has gotten partisan … we’ve forgotten that the most important thing is the integrity of our elections,” Paul continued.
The senator called it a “moot point” whether President Trump requests the extradition of the 12 indicted Russian officials, adding that there’s no reason to expect Moscow would agree to it.
“If we have proof that they did it, we should spend our time protecting ourselves instead of having this witch hunt on the president,” Paul said. “I think we need to be done with this so we can protect our elections.” – READ MORE
[give_form id=”79809″] [contentcards url=”http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/07/17/rand-paul-sides-with-trump-on-russia-says-critics-motivated-by-dislike-president.html” target=”_blank”]