GOP Kentucky Senator Rand Paul told "This Week" White House correspondent Jonathan Karl that America should feel "lucky" that "John McCain is not in charge," (ABC News, 2/19/17). Paul, who also has been critical of Trump in his first four weeks of office, stated that "everything" that McCain says about Donald Trump "is colored by his own personal dispute he has got running with President Trump," (ABC News, 2/19/17). Paul then added that as he sees it, everything McCain says about Trump's foreign policy "should be taken with a grain of salt."
Perpetual war
Paul also made reference to McCain's foreign policy, of which he totally disapproves.
According to Paul, if McCain were President, we would be in "perpetual war." Paul then stated that McCain, who stated that Trump is "flirting with authoritarianism," has "advocated for war everywhere." In recent months, McCain has called for American troops to fight in a war against Syria to stop Bashar al-Assad, who has massacred tens of thousands of civilians and perpetuated a global refugee crisis.
According to Paul, America's intervention in Syria already has caused "chaos" in the region. As Paul sees it, the enhanced military intervention that is supported by McCain would cause even more chaos and instability and would make things 'worse" in Syria. As Paul sees it, McCain's differences with Trump narrow down to differences in foreign policy, rather than other issues.
Paul believes that if McCain were President right now, that the United States would be mired in perpetual war on a "global" scale.
Dictators "shut down the press"
In his ongoing criticisms of Trump, McCain, who describes the Trump Administration as being in "disarray," said in an interview with NBC News that "The first thing that dictators do is shut down the press," (ABC News, 2/19/17).
McCain was referring to Trump's depiction of the press as "the enemy of the American People, (ABC News, 2/17/17) in a press conference late last week. McCain went on to explain that he was not actually calling Trump a dictator, but that "We need to learn the lessons of history," (ABC News, 2/19/17).
