‘He Keeps Rattling the Cage!’ Rand Paul Trashes Trump’s Greenland Threats

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) assured NBC’s Kristen Welker that congressional Republicans do not support President Donald Trump’s threats to take over Greenland.

During a bipartisan discussion on Sunday’s Meet The Press with Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Welker asked if Paul thought “there would be enough Republicans to pass” legislation on “a second war powers resolution?”

“On the war powers, or militarily invading Greenland, I’ve heard no Republican support for that,” Paul said.

“Even the most hawkish members of our caucus have said they won’t support that,” he continued. “So, I think it’s gonna be very difficult. I think he keeps rattling the cage saying that. But as far as trying to buy it peacefully, you don’t get purchasers to come around by berating them and telling them you’ll take in anyway. So, I don’t think that’s very successful.”

Welker then asked Paul about his position on impeaching the president if he tries to move on Greenland anyway.

“Republican congressman Don Bacon is saying he might even move to impeach President Trump if he takes military action against Greenland,” Welker said. “You’ve described yourself as one of the president’s biggest defenders during his past impeachment trials during his first administration. Would annexing Greenland be an impeachable offense?”

“We have these all the time,” Paul said of constitutional disputes and discussion of impeachment.

“I think it’s my job as part of Congress to discuss and check and balance the presidential powers, but I don’t think every time there’s a dispute between the presidential powers and the congressional powers that that is something that we impeach people for,” he said, continuing:

And yes, I was a defender of him in the first two impeachments. I thought they were partisan, and I think, for the most part, they’re not good for the country. For the most part elections — impeachment should be extraordinary, not commonplace. So, I’m hoping we’ll have these debates, that they’ll be thorough, and I’m hoping we don’t get to a military invasion.

Paul added that he didn’t think a military invasion was a foregone conclusion because “there’s not a Republican that’s come up to me and said, ‘Oh yes, I’ll back [Trump] to the hilt.”

Watch the clip above via NBC News’s Meet The Press. The bipartisan discussion was part of the network’s “Finding Common Ground” series.

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