Is Sen. Lindsey Graham weighing a run for president just to heckle Sen. Rand Paul on foreign policy issues?
No one is admitting as much, but Paul said Monday that either way, it’s fine with him.
“I think I’m happy to have the debate, and I think it would be a healthy debate in the Republican party and across the country,” Paul, a Kentucky Republican, said in an interview on the Laura Ingraham radio show Monday.
Graham’s sudden interest in running for president has puzzled the political punditry. Some are theorizing that Graham would only join the race to weaken Paul’s candidacy by painting him as someone who would make the nation less safe with a less aggressive foreign policy plan for the United States.
The South Carolina Republican, one of the leading national defense and foreign policy hawks, announced last week the launch of an official exploratory committee, Security through Strength, to determine if he has a shot at winning the primary. He said he’s running as a center-right candidate with strong national security and foreign policy skills who is able to work with Democrats.
Graham has frequently opposed Paul’s philosophy on foreign policy and national defense, including his 2013 filibuster over the Obama administration’s policy on domestic drone use.
Paul opposes major U.S. troop involvement in the Middle East and supports making cuts to the Pentagon, which he said is full of wasteful spending. He’s also said he believes Islamic terrorists pose a threat to the United States, but the policy of sending U.S. weapons to the area has backfired.
“I have supported military action against [the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria],” Paul said on the show. “But, I’ve also said that I think ISIS is stronger because of all of the weapons we’ve poured into the Syrian moderates in that civil war.”
Paul took a jab at Graham over his own foreign policy record, accusing Graham of flip flopping on their support of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, at first supporting him and then advocating a U.S.-backed ouster that has since led to chaos in the country.
“The problem has been that every time we’ve gone in their to topple a dictator, it’s ended up a disaster,” Paul said.
