On Tuesday evening, conservative news and opinion outlet The Daily Caller tweeted a clip of Sen. Rand Paul's (R-KY) speech during this week's Republican National Convention. In the clip, Paul praises President Trump for being "the first president in a generation to seek to end war, rather than start one," while also criticizing the president's Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, for his past support for military intervention, notably his vote for the Iraq War.
Aside from the president's actions and rhetoric that contradict the senator's claim, shortly after the outlet tweeted the clip, journalist and Status Coup co-founder Jordan Chariton retweeted it and pointed out that Paul voted in July against an amendment introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to cut the Pentagon budget by 10%, which he believes is the hypocrisy in Paul's remarks.
In fact, during his most recent Senate re-election campaign in 2016, Paul took campaign contributions from several leadership PACs that, in turn, were funded in part by the defense sector. The leadership PACs that donated the most, $10,000, to Paul were Common Values PAC (which took $32,500 from the defense sector), Defend America PAC (which took $55,000 from the sector), Dirigo PAC (which took $53,500), Heartland Values PAC ($58,500), HellerHighWater PAC ($22,500), Kelly PAC ($43,500), Making Business Excel PAC ($30,000), OrrinPAC ($31,000), Project West PAC ($29,000), Rock City PAC ($34,000), and Senate Victory Fund ($41,000).
This is not the first time Paul's anti-war rhetoric has come into question; two years ago, he voted to confirm Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State, despite his previous opposition to his nomination due to his hawkish, interventionist views.
"In addition to lauding Trump's stance on war in the Middle East," says Morgan Watkins of The Courier-Journal, "Paul also expressed support for the president's approach to various other issues, including criminal justice and tax reform. For example, he emphasized that Trump signed the First Step Act — a proposal intended to help reduce mass incarceration by, for example, granting judges more discretion when they sentence people for nonviolent drug crimes — into law in 2018."
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