Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) said he was “very strongly” looking at running for president in 2016 on Wednesday’s “Howie Carr Show.”
Paul was asked whether he planned to run for re-election to the Senate and president simultaneously in 2016 and Alison Lundergan Grimes’ plans to disrupt him, Paul mockingly said that he was just glad Grimes “found her voice,” but he additionally stated he was “very strongly” thinking of running for president, and that he will run for re-election. Paul then declared “having someone that occupies the position that is for a reasonable foreign policy, a strong national defense, but not an overreaching foreign policy that involves us everywhere, someone who believes in free trade and not an isolationist sort of policy towards trade. I think someone who believes in free markets and balanced budgets, I think all of that will occupy a unique space that’ll be different than others should we choose to do it.”
He also said “horrified” by the terrorist attacks in France “civilized Islam has to stamp out this barbarity” and that Muslim countries should send troops to fight ISIS and that the US should “withhold money to these crazy countries if they’re going to not be supportive of us and if they’re going to be indiscriminately arming crazy radical Islam.”
The discussion then turned to Paul’s fight with Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) over Cuba policy. Paul re-iterated that he understands the evils of Communism better than almost anyone else, but that the trade embargo hasn’t worked and argued that trading with China has been a positive force and that “intertwining” economies decrease the likelihood of war. He added that if Cubans were exposed to US culture through trade, it would be harder for Communism to keep its hold on the island.
When Carr brought up the vows of the Castros to continue Communism, Paul pointed out that Cuba continued its Communist policies during the embargo as well. He did concede that nothing has really changed since the agreement, but expressed hope that there was “a chance that over time, that trade will improve their [the Cuban people] lot…the alternative, the embargo, hasn’t worked, it hasn’t made things better either for the Cuban people, nor has it dislodged the Castros.”
Paul also re-iterated his opposition to the president’s executive action on immigration and the Congress should use the power of the purse. He also said that he was unsure whether he would vote to make Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) Speaker of the House since he wasn’t a party to the decision and hadn’t really thought about it.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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