Rand Paul Gets Defensive on Foreign Aid: I’ve Never ‘Targeted’ Israel
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has been under fire this week for past proposals in which he declared a desire to end U.S. foreign aid to all countries, including Israel. Now, in a statement from his office and subsequent interview with CNN, Paul has been forced into a defensive posture, backing off his previous stance and insisting that he never wanted to specifically cut aid to Israel.
“I’ve never introduced any legislation that targeted Israel in any way,” Paul told CNN on Tuesday. Instead, he said he has been focusing on eliminating aid to Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. He went after media outlets that prints headlines reading “Rand Paul Wants to End Aid to Israel” for misleading readers and not “representing the truth.”
When the CNN reporter reminded Paul that he has supported legislation that would end all foreign aid, Israel included, he replied, “If you want to write a story about foreign aid, you could write a story about foreign aid.” He pointed to budgets he has supported since those initial proposals that would still allow Israel to receive aid from the U.S.
“Ultimately, for Israel, it would be even better if they were completely independent,” Paul said, likening his views to those of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “But I haven’t proposed targeting or eliminating any aid to Israel.”
In 2011, Paul answered affirmatively when Wolf Blitzer asked him if he is in favor of ending “and all foreign aid including the foreign aid to Israel.”
His campaign to correct the record appears to be working. A search of “Rand Paul Israel” retrieves far more articles about his denial than it does pieces that criticize his stance.
Watch video below, via CNN:
[Photo via screengrab]
— —
