Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Monday night backed away from a comment he made last week that “ISIS exists and grew stronger because of the hawks in our party.”
Fox News host Sean Hannity asked Paul why he blamed the rise of the Islamic State on members of the Republican party.
“I think ultimately I could have maybe stated it a little bit better,” Paul responded. “What I would say is that the ultimate people who are responsible for terrorism are obviously the terrorists. So ISIS is responsible for the mayhem, the murders, the brutality, the beheadings, that’s ISIS.”
Paul said that said the rise of ISIL was one of the “unintended consequences” of arming Syrian rebels.
“This was the policy of President Obama, it was the policy of Hillary Clinton and it was also the policy of some in my party who wanted to arm the Islamic rebels. And I warned at the time that the great irony is that you arm these people — one day we’ll have to go back and fight against these weapons ourselves,” he said.
After Paul made the initial comments last week blaming his own party for the existence of the Islamic State, potential Republican presidential candidates hit back.
“This is a perfect example of why Senator Paul is unsuited to be Commander-in-Chief,” Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) wrote in a statement. “We have men and women in the military who are in the field trying to fight ISIS right now, and Senator Paul is taking the weakest, most liberal Democrat position.”
Watch Hannity’s interview with Paul below via Fox News. They begin discussing ISIL at the 6 minute mark.
H/t Huffington Post
Rand, m’boyo, you had it mostly right. The group of people in the US who are responsible for the rise of ISIL are the hawks in your party and the Bush Administration who pushed for a needless and senseless war.
Don’t trip over your own campaign when you are backpedaling furiously like that Rand!
Damn this shithead is shameless. How stupid does he think we are? It’s been my position that Rand Paul is a formula by the book politician and there is nothing to the media hype of his uniqueness. And look at him prove it.
Lots of folks were talking about exceptional he was to make his initial remarks ( which were self serving ) but look at him now. As soon as he gets some heat he walks back, dances, runs around or whatever it takes to get back in his party’s good graces. He really is a sickening little puke.
Craven little hack–the first time in your life you tell the truth, and you immediately backtrack on it.
This idiot is spinning faster than a tilt-a-whirl. Oh, and to all you folks who got suckered in by his not really a filibuster filibuster, I hope you’re seeing this idiot for what he is. Before you start getting all righteous about how Paul brought attention to the Patriot Act and domestic spying and how he single handily stopped the renewal of the provisions, a few facts: