Senator Rand Paul has stepped up to become Trump’s more vigorous defender when it comes to Russian interference in the US Election process. Today he blocked Bernie Sanders’ unanimous consent to back the Intelligence Community’s findings that Russia had meddled in the 2016 election. The resolution also demands that Trump speak with Mueller directly.
From the Hill:
The Congress must make it clear that we accept the assessment of our intelligence community with regard to Russian election interfering in our country and in other democracies," Sanders said during a Senate floor speech.
Under Senate rules, any one senator could block his request.
Sanders's resolution would also demand already passed sanctions legislation be fully implemented, move to protect the election system and "not accept" interference in Mueller's investigation, including the firing of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
Well, Mr. Paul just thought it was plain crazy and promoted Trump Derangement Syndrome.
"The hatred for the president is so intense that partisans would rather risk war than give diplomacy a chance," he said.
Paul questioned why senators would not want to have relations with Russia.
"We should stand firm and say 'Stay the hell out of our elections,' but we should not stick our head in the ground and say we're not going to talk to them," he said.
But Sanders fired back that Paul's objection was unrelated to his resolution, which he noted doesn't push for cutting off talks with the Russians.
"What the senator said is totally irrelevant to what is in this resolution," Sanders said.
As we know now, Trump has known about Putin’s orders to interfere in the 2016 election for over 18 months. Even before he was inaugurated. So why does he continue to doubt his own DNI? And while Paul doesn’t want wars and wants diplomacy, this block is indefensible.
When will the GOP put country over party?