Critics of Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., have long labeled him an “isolationist.” Now he is redirecting their foreign-policy epithet against them.
Fresh from a trip to Russia to promote diplomacy between the two countries, Paul told reporters Tuesday morning why he went to Moscow and St. Petersburg, and described the letter from President Trump he gave to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Just another indication that we need to figure out a way to normalize our relations with Russia rather than trying to have diplomatic isolationism,” Paul said. “I think that’s what many of the neoconservatives in the Republican Party and now some progressives on the Left have become, diplomatic isolationists.”
Most Republicans in Congress remain Russia hawks — “The free world isn’t going to sit on the sideline while Putin and his crooked oligarchs try to make the Soviet Union great again,” Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., said in a representative statement — and many Democratic lawmakers have moved further in that direction following Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The two countries have also been at odds over Russian annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and support for Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Trump was widely denounced across the political spectrum for seeming too deferential to Putin during a joint press conference in Helsinki, including appearing to credit the Russian president’s denial of electoral meddling.
In this context, there is little appetite for talks with Russia. Paul disagrees. “I think it’s important that we have dialog between countries that control 90 percent of the nuclear weapons in the world,” he said.
Paul noted that the New START nuclear arms treaty is expiring in 2021 and mentioned the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty concluded with the former Soviet Union, acknowledging “allegations that both sides have done activities that violate either the spirit or details of New START or INF.” He said arms control solutions could only be found through sustained diplomacy and are important even with other disputes with Russia still ongoing.
That’s why Paul argued Tuesday it was counterproductive for U.S. sanctions to prohibit travel by Russian legislators. He also met with former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who had successful negotiations with Ronald Reagan, while in Russia.
The Kentucky Republican’s defense of Trump after Helsinki and support for more diplomacy has brought him closer to the president. According to one report, Paul may have even tempered Trump’s support for regime change in Iran. Trump recently said he would be willing to meet with Iranian leaders “without preconditions,” a line that perplexed Republicans when uttered by Barack Obama during the 2008 campaign, though Trump also abrogated Obama’s nuclear deal with Tehran.
Similarly, Democrats who ridiculed 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney for considering Russia a leading threat to American national security are now comparing the hacking of Hillary Clinton campaign emails to Kristallnacht, the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Paul by contrast contends that continuing to talk with Russia while also rebuking them for their electoral funny business will foster cooperation against terrorism and potentially help wind down the civil war in Syria, which “many say… will not come to a military conclusion with complete victory or loss to any party.”
It’s a stance that hasn’t been embraced by everyone in Paul’s party. Last year, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Paul was “working for Vladimir Putin” by opposing NATO membership for Montenegro.
