Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., doesn’t like Donald Trump’s rumored finalists for the job of leading the State Department, and said he is “not inclined” to support either of them.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is the rumored favorite for the job, and John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, is another option. But Paul told the Washington Post that he doesn’t like either and will do “whatever I can” in particular to block Bolton.
“Bolton is a longtime member of the failed Washington elite that Trump vowed to oppose, hell-bent on repeating virtually every foreign policy mistake the U.S. has made in the last 15 years — particularly those Trump promised to avoid as president,” Paul wrote in an op-ed at Rare.
Paul faulted Bolton for defending the Iraq War and backing the use of military force in Libya and Syria. “For Bolton, only a hot-blooded war to create democracy across the globe is demanded,” he wrote.
Bolton has defended the decision to invade Iraq in light of the belief that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, though he has a long history of criticizing the attempt to install a democratic system of government in the country.
“While President George W. Bush and others sought to justify military action after Saddam’s downfall as helping to spread democracy, such arguments played no measurable role in the decision to end Saddam’s regime,” he wrote in 2013. “Obviously, most administration officials expected the Ba’ath party would be replaced by representative government, but that was not the motive, should not have been, and will not be in future interventions.”
Bolton and Paul have a history of foreign policy fighting. As the Kentucky senator denounced George W. Bush’s foreign policy during their presidential runs, Bolton paid for an attack ad against Paul spotlighting his statement that, “Our national security is not threatened by Iran having one nuclear weapon.”
Still, Bolton said he would have backed Paul if the libertarian-leaning senator had won the GOP presidential nomination. “I believed in the power of redemption,” Bolton said of Paul.
