King hammers away at Paul in GOP infighting
(CNN) – Republican Rep. Peter King of New York fired back at Sen. Rand Paul, who accused him of being part of a Republican wing that’s “all for blowing up stuff, but not too concerned with fiscal responsibility.”
The longtime congressman from Long Island argued Paul and his libertarian-leaning views on foreign policy were making “America the enemy.”
“I'm afraid that's what Senator Paul is going to do with us,” King said on CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.” “He wants to retreat from the world. He wants to isolate ourselves, go back to a fortress America.”
Paul describes his views as non-interventionist, meaning he prefers to stay out of conflicts overseas but wants to keep national defense strong. He’s also big on cutting foreign aid. He proposed a measure to end federal assistance to Egypt over the ouster of its president by the military but it was defeated in the Senate Wednesday.
King said he’s worried that Paul’s faction of the Republican Party is too divisive.
“The Republicans had this debate back in the 1930s, when you had the isolationist and the Charles Lindberghs, and the Democrats had it in the 1960s when the anti-war movement blamed America first. In both cases it hurt the party for years,” he said.
The senator from Kentucky also criticized efforts by King and Republican Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey to get federal aid for victims of Superstorm Sandy for their states.
“You have to be willing to cut spending in other places, and Governor Christie and others have been part of this 'gimme gimme gimme', 'give me all this money,'" Paul said Tuesday on CNN.
But King said Paul wasn’t there after the storm hit New Jersey and New York and “never saw the devastation.”
“It's easy to say cut this or cut that, you can have an intelligence debate about it, but so far he hasn't shown very much intelligence,” he said.
- CNN’s Ashley Killough contributed to this report.
Read more: Paul calling for a ceasefire with Christie? Maybe. But definitely a beer.
Watch The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer weekdays at 4pm to 6pm ET and Saturdays at 6pm ET. For the latest from The Situation Room click here.
From CNN Politics
- CNN town halls with Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg and Tom Steyer
- 9 days that could rock the Democratic race for president February 24, 2020 12:18 pm
- Trump wants fewer people on his team -- but more loyalists February 24, 2020 02:38 pm
- Analysis: A shady Russian spy tale that is splintering US democracy February 24, 2020 12:31 pm
- The 1 thing that might slow down Bernie Sanders is a very, very long shot February 24, 2020 04:56 pm
- Nevada Democratic Party says caucus results are fully reported February 25, 2020 02:13 am
Paul is simply stating what the Republicans believed in the 80's. It seems like that party has changed into more of a globalist "conservative" party rather than anything to do with the Americanism that Republicans have always defended.
I love it when the in fighting turns to eating their young.
This lite paul/doctor wannabe is ticking off his own people.
The silver lining is that the more he talks the more ammunition (no pun intended) we will have against him.
The Republican/Tea Party is getting what it deserves because it embraced Sen Rand Paul, an extreme libertarian, with open arms.
Like he says, the debate needs to be had (privacy vs. safety). But King shows some idiotic assumptions only seen in government functionaries who think they can do everything better. He assumes that this huge governmental organization, NSA, can be trusted to treat Terabytes of personal information responsibly and carefully. The supervisors of NSA can't even answer honestly whether they are gathering the information. Kinf also shows an egoistic faith in his own insight into Paul's motives. Paul is a libertarian. If King knew anything about libertarian capitalism, he would not make the moronic statement that Paul aims for isolationism. Paul promotes free international trade and immigration, just as much as Adam Smith or George Washington did. Anybody who takes the time can easily verify that Paul is a stout libertarian capitalist, and that is totally incompatible with isolationism.
Why can't these bozos get along? They cannot even get along with themselves. How embarrassing.
I like to see king chew up and spit out bland at every turn. Paul is such an Ameuture and goof!!!!
Republicans are red, Democrats are blue and neither one of them give a crap about you
It's fun to watch the GOP implode. King is scared to death of Rant Paul because he has a lot of followers and King knows that if Rant were to run for president, he would split the GOP vote.
All I can say is, Run, Rant, run!!!
Little Rand is getting it from all sides...about time!
What is funny is Paul is a Neoncon himself, he is just trying to eat both types of cake. Any TRUE libertarian would want the military aid cut in order to crack away at the MIComplex. He wants more money added
Peter King and Rand Paul ,
The Pitt bull and the Poodle
Aqua Buddha Buddies 2016
Anyone who has gone through natural disasters knows you will need help. Your personal property is gone the childrens schools are damaged or gone. The comunity is damaged. I live through the LA storms and it isn't easy. FEMA did make it better. We had water and food because of them. Some people did try to rip off the system. There is a need for oversite for the payments for personal use. All in all they were a God send. We would have had a very hard time without their help.
Let's cut to the good part of this movie where we put cruz, paul, king, and christie in a thunderdome. My prediction: christie throws one wild punch, falls down, and breaks a hip. The other three wet themselves and later claim that it was part of a secret fighting technique.
I love watching the party of clowns throw spit wads at each other.
I like some of Rand Paul's libertarian positions, but I think he is a bit clueless and overly extreme. Not providing aid after a natural disaster is just dumb. It raises a lot of concerns about his qualifications.
King is right. Rand Paul is a dope. So are the Guns Over People Shutdown Government tea potty wackjobs who love him.
It's a simple choice in 3 years. Vote Christie or any Democrat and our fate is sealed, we have gone Communist. Vote for Paul and he may be able to reverse the damage done by both Bush and Obama and return us to some what of a free Democratic country. My guess; The takers who now out number the makers will vote for Communism.