Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has long prided himself on a public image of fierce independence and bravado built on an admittedly juvenile view of the world, but one that requires its hero, Himself, to be a Lone Rider. Today, that image was shattered.
Rand Paul went on TV to defend Donald Trump and the Russians today, while blaming President Obama for his own party’s president’s help from Russia in attacking the United States presidential election.
“I wish President Obama had been more aggressive in pursuing it [Russia’s attacks] during President Obama’s term, but I think the Department of Justice can get to the bottom of it without a special counsel,” the now branded servant of Donald Trump said, stabbing his own country in the back in the doing.
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Paul then parroted Donald Trump’s favorite words about the Mueller investigation, “Witch hunt”: “If we have proof that they did it, we should spend our time protecting ourselves instead of having this witch hunt on the president,†Paul said on CNN’s State of the Union. “I think we need to be done with this so we can protect our election.”
Rand pretended that the issue was the folly of indicting Russians, as if Mueller doesn’t have a reason for what he’s doing.
Rand tried to present the Mueller investigation as a witch hunt and as an expansion of government powers, which is certainly at least on brand with his image- or would be, if he weren’t repeating many of the President’s false attacks on this investigation.
It is not President Obama’s fault that Putin helped Donald Trump win an election.
It is not President Obama’s fault that Republicans are doing nothing right now to protect the 2018 midterms from Putin’s interference on their behalf.
It is not President Obama’s fault that Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) obstructed him from presenting a joint, bipartisan statement on the Russian attacks in 2016, thereby branding reality a partisan issue.
It is not President Obama’s fault that Republicans are refusing to put their country first.
And it is most certainly not President Obama’s fault that President Putin saw in Donald Trump an easy target, a puppet, a corrupt person who was easily used and manipulated to undermine democracy.
Lastly, it is not President Obama’s fault that the Trump campaign was full of crooks who are in various stages of indictments, charges, guilty pleas, and more or that many of these people willingly spoke with Russians to get help on the election.
Blaming Obama for the acts of these grown men is just a stunning statement from Rand Paul, who up until now seemed to have a backbone and an ideology.
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