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Rand Paul: Saudi Arabia Has Been Aiding Abetting ISIS In Syria
Air Date: September 15th, 2014 This video may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes only. This constitutes a #39;fair use #39; of any such copyrighted...
By: selfownership1
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Rand Paul: Saudi Arabia Has Been Aiding & Abetting ISIS In Syria - Video
McCain Admits Meeting With ISIS, Scolds Rand Paul For Not Knowing Terrorists
Sen. John McCain took on Sen. Rand Paul on 9/15, on Hannityover his refusal to support Syrian rebels. Has Rand Paul ever been to Syria? Has he ever met with ISIS? Has he ever met...
By: Jonathan Barnes
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McCain Admits Meeting With ISIS, Scolds Rand Paul For Not Knowing Terrorists - Video
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is everywhere these days. And arguably nobody has crafted such a big profilein his first four years in the Senate. He gives what seems to be a speech a day, is on TV all the time, and isn't shyabouttalking to reporters. The summation is lots of Rand Paul being on the record.
The flipside of that, of course, is that there is lots of Rand Paul being on the recordfor people like us (ink-stained wretches that we are) to parse. And parse we will.
Over justthe past few days, several stories have detailed the inconsistencies and take-backs contained in Paul's public record. Here's our David Farenthold:
Sen. Rand Paul wanted to eliminate aid to Israel. Now he doesnt. He wanted to scrap the Medicare system. Now hes not sure.
Hedidnt like the ideaof a border fence it was expensive, and it reminded him of the Berlin Wall. Now he wants two fences, one behind the other.
And what about same-sex marriage? Pauls position such marriages are morally wrong, but Republicans should stop obsessing about them seems so muddled that an Iowa pastor recently confronted him in frustration.
Yahoo's Chris Moody offered a similar take, and the Daily Caller's Matt Lewis summarized both pieces thusly:
Both do a very good job of documenting Pauls changing positions, but neither fully captures the frustration that comes from dealing with someone who refuses to play by the agreed upon rules of logic, rhetoric, and discourse that keeps society from descending into chaos.
Ouch.
Perhaps nothing captures this phenomenon more than a recent flap over Paul and his comments on executive orders. Paul told a crowd in New Hampshire a few days ago that, as president, hewould repealall executive orders that are currently on the books i.e. more than 200 years' worth.
Continued here:
The Fix: Rand Paul talks a lot probably too much for his own good
In this file photo, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, gives the keynote speech at the New Hampshire GOP Unity Breakfast September 12, 2014 in Manchester, New Hampshire. Darren McCollester, Getty Images
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, opposes arming moderate Syrian rebels to fight extremists with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), because he doesn't trust the U.S. to ensure the weapons reach the right people.
After all, Paul said in an interview on Tuesday, Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, even had his picture taken with ISIS members last year. And if a U.S. senator can't differentiate between ISIS and moderate groups in the region, he asked, why should the rest of America have any confidence that the arms will be used as intended?
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Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., urges the administration to step up its military campaign against militants with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (...
One problem, though: McCain didn't have his picture taken with ISIS, as several outlets mistakenly reported at the time. During a trip to Syria last May, the Arizona Republican had his picture taken with the Free Syrian Army, one group the U.S. hopes to empower in the fight against jihadists.
"Here's the problem," Paul told The Daily Beast. "He [McCain] did meet with ISIS, and had his picture taken, and didn't know it was happening at the time. That really shows you the quandary of determining who are the moderates and who aren't. If you don't speak Arabic, and you don't understand that some people will lie to you -- I really think that we don't have a good handle on who are the moderates and who aren't, and I think the objective evidence is that the ones doing most of the fighting and most of the battles among the rebels in Syria are the radical Islamists."
McCain, who's previously criticized Paul's non-interventionist approach to global conflicts, couldn't let the accusation go unanswered.
"I can't believe Rand is still repeating this stuff, which came from a Hezbollah newspaper in Lebanon!" he told the Daily Beast. "He's getting his information from Hezbollah. It's outrageous...I don't know if Rand is dishonest or misinformed...I met with the Northern Storm and Gen. Idriss, who was the head of the Free Syrian Army. Most of the guys in that picture are dead now, killed by ISIS. It's just ridiculous."
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Originally posted here:
Rand Paul repeats debunked report about John McCain meeting ISIS
By Leigh Ann Caldwell, CNN
updated 11:50 AM EDT, Wed September 17, 2014
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
(CNN) -- Sen. Rand Paul is trying to shed the perception that he's an isolationist and that he thinks the United States should retreat from intervention in other countries' affairs. But members of his own party are making it hard for the Kentucky Republican to escape that image.
Sen. John McCain, one of the most hawkish members of the Senate, told Fox News host Neil Cavuto on Tuesday night that Paul has "a fundamental lack of understanding of the situation and the threats we face" from ISIS.
Referring to Paul's evolving position on ISIS, McCain said the libertarian-leaning senator "has obviously been doing somersaults" since the Sunni militant group gruesomely killed two American journalists and a British aid worker.
Paul, who is seriously considering a presidential run in 2016, responded to his critics in an interview released Wednesday in The Federalist, telling the conservative Web magazine how "frustrating" these labels are for him.
"I spent the past five years in public life telling everyone that 'hey, I'm not an isolationist' ... and when they find out I'm not, they say I've switched positions, because I'm not the position they were saying I was. You know what I mean? So for five years they've been accusing me of being something that I say I'm not."
But McCain apparently doesn't buy this explanation. He said Paul has "dramatically shifted his positions on national security. He said we shouldn't intervene, no matter what, anywhere. And now obviously he wants to take out ISIS."
"I think it's kind of a desperation kind of trying to find some footing here as he slides down a very steep slope of credibility."
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Why Rand Paul can't shake isolationist image