{"id":66535,"date":"2017-02-19T22:06:59","date_gmt":"2017-02-20T02:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=66535"},"modified":"2017-02-19T22:06:59","modified_gmt":"2017-02-20T02:06:59","slug":"rand-paul-were-very-lucky-john-mccains-not-in-charge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=66535","title":{"rendered":"Rand Paul: We\u2019re very lucky John McCain\u2019s not in charge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--more-->BY ALEXANDER BOLTON<br \/>\nThe Hill<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/launch.newsinc.com\/?type=VideoPlayer\/Single&amp;widgetId=1&amp;trackingGroup=69016&amp;playlistId=19132&amp;siteSection=thehill2300_nws_pol_sec&amp;videoId=32011889\" width=\"590\" height=\"332\" frameborder=\"no\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Sen. <span class=\"rollover-people\" data-behavior=\"rolloverpeople\"><a class=\"rollover-people-link\" href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/people\/rand-paul\" data-nid=\"188293\">Rand Paul<\/a><\/span> (Ky.) ripped fellow Republican Sen. <span class=\"rollover-people\" data-behavior=\"rolloverpeople\"><a class=\"rollover-people-link\" href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/people\/john-mccain\" data-nid=\"188278\">John McCain<\/a><\/span> (Ariz.) on Sunday after McCain criticized President Trump\u2019s escalating war of words with the media.<\/p>\n<p>He argued that the nation is \u201cvery lucky\u201d that Trump is president and not McCain, who won the 2008 GOP nomination but lost to <span class=\"rollover-people\" data-behavior=\"rolloverpeople\"><a class=\"rollover-people-link\" href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/people\/barack-obama\" data-nid=\"188226\">Barack Obama<\/a><\/span> in the general election.<\/p>\n<p>Paul said that McCain\u2019s recent criticisms of Trump are driven by his \u201cpersonal dispute\u201d with the president over foreign policy.<\/p>\n<p>He added that McCain and Trump are at odds because McCain supports the wide deployment of U.S. troops to protect and promote American interests abroad while he characterized Trump\u2019s views as closer to a realpolitik approach to foreign policy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverything that he says about the president is colored by his own personal dispute he\u2019s got running with President Trump, and it should be taken with a grain of salt, because John McCain\u2019s the guy who\u2019s advocated for war everywhere,\u201d Paul said on ABC\u2019s \u201cThis Week.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe would bankrupt the nation. We\u2019re very lucky John McCain\u2019s not in charge, because I think we\u2019d be in perpetual war,\u201d Paul added.<\/p>\n<p>McCain in an interview with NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press\u201d warned that the suppression of a free press can lead to a dictatorial regime. He made the comments after Trump tweeted on Friday that the media is \u201cthe enemy of the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McCain has also harshly criticized Trump\u2019s expressed respect for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his suggestion earlier this month that the United States does not have the moral authority to criticize Russia\u2019s human rights record.<\/p>\n<p>Paul said there has no effort by the Trump administration to suppress the media, noting that no legislation has been offered to curb press freedoms.<\/p>\n<p>Paul argued that McCain has a history of being wrong major foreign policy questions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would say John McCain\u2019s been wrong on just about everything over the last four decades. He advocated for the Iraq War, which I think destabilized the Middle East,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you look at the map, there\u2019s probably at least six different countries where John McCain has advocated for us having boots on the ground,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/international\/320290-rand-paul-were-very-lucky-john-mccains-not-in-charge\">http:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/international\/320290-rand-paul-were-very-lucky-john-mccains-not-in-charge<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66535\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}