Jindal: Rand Would Be Worse Than Obama on Foreign Policy, Won't Be Nominee

Louisiana Governor and prospective Republican presidential candidate Bobby Jindal argued that Rand Paul’s foreign policy “would be a continuation, even worse, of what we’ve seen the last six-plus years” and that Rand wouldn’t be the nominee on Thursday’s “Wolf” on CNN.

Jindal re-iterated his prior argument that Republicans would strongly condemn President Obama if he had made a similar comment, and that Rand should be similarly criticized, and that it is inaccurate to “blame America first” for ISIS’ existence. He continued, “This is a statement that’s even to left of what Secretary Clinton or President Obama would say. It needs to be condemned, it needs to be criticized. But, secondly, what also troubles me from the senator’s comments, we can’t beat evil through weakness. We’ve also had a foreign policy over six years now of trying to lead from behind, America needs to be strong. We will defeat evil through strength, not weakness. I think it’s ridiculous to do anything other than to say we’re going to hunt down and kill these terrorists and recognize that radical Islam is the real problem here, not foreign policy hawks in the Republican Party.”

Jindal added, “I think when you listen to his views on foreign policy, it would be a continuation, even worse, of what we’ve seen the last six-plus years. … Senator Paul’s suggests to me he would be even to the left of President Obama and Hillary Clinton. we need to say, radical Islam is the real enemy here.”

Jindal also said, “One, I don’t think he’s going to be the nominee. And I want to be very clear, this is not a personal disagreement, this is about policy issues. Look, I want to commend the senator for standing up and saying that we need to be wary of spying on Americans here at home. There are many things that he’s done that I think are commendable, I just think when it comes to foreign policy which is an increasingly important issue, his statements yesterday, and some of his previous statements, I just think render him unsuitable. Anybody that’s auditioning to be commander-in-chief, I believe, needs to spell out how they would keep America safe. We need a radical break from this president’s policies. I didn’t hear Senator Rand Paul describe that break.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett