Rand Paul: Larry Kudlow gets a thumbs up, Not so much for Mike Pompeo, Gina Haspel
President Trump announced some important cabinet and administration moves this week to include Larry Kudlow as Gary Cohn’s replacement as Director of the National Economic Council and after the firing of the country’s top diplomat, Rex Tillerson, CIA Director Mike Pompeo has been nominated as the next Secretary of State.
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has expressed polar opposite views of these picks giving Kudlow full support and Pompeo and Trump’s pick to replace him, Gina Haspel not so favorable a review, in fact, he vows to oppose the nominations.
Dr Paul said concerning Kudlow, “I’ve known Larry Kudlow for a long time, and he is a great pick for this job. His views and work on tax policy and economic growth will serve President Trump and America well. I support this choice enthusiastically”.
On Wednesday, Paul said he was concerned about Director Pompeo’s bellicose, interventionist foreign policy, which might take us back to war in the Middle East, as well as his previous statements on so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” and his desire to empower the surveillance state.
“What I liked about candidate Trump was his strong condemnation of the Iraq War. I believe President Trump has done a great job, and I continue to support him, but I cannot endorse his nomination of people who loved the Iraq War so much that they want an Iran War next. Director Pompeo has not learned the lessons of regime change and wants regime change in Iran.
“I can’t support people who never understood America First and want to manipulate the President into the sphere of the neocons who never met a war they didn’t want to star in.
“President Trump sought to break with the foreign policy mistakes of the last two administrations. Yet now he picks for Secretary of State and CIA Director people who embody them, defend them, and, I’m afraid, will repeat them. I will not support their nominations.”
Along with opposing the Pompeo and Haspel nominations, Paul is also urging President Trump not to consider former ambassador John Bolton for a foreign policy position in his administration, noting his disagreements with President Trump and stating that his policies would have been “perfectly at home in a Hillary Clinton administration, but should have no place in President Trump’s White House.”
“The neocons have been so completely and regularly wrong for decades now that it’s almost unimaginable to believe they would ever be in a position to advise a president again,” the Senator stated, “let alone to wield the kind of power they will have if they lead some of our nation’s most powerful institutions.”
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[…] Rand Paul: Larry Kudlow gets a thumbs up, Not so much for Mike Pompeo, Gina Haspel […]