Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is no stranger to foreign policy feuds.
The Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll winner took aim at Sen. Ted Cruz (R) Monday night for invoking former President Ronald Reagan to suggest he was soft on using military force abroad.
“We always have been good friends,” Paul said of Cruz on Fox News’ “Hannity.” “I’m not real excited about him mischaracterizing my views, and I won’t let that pass. I think that sometimes, people want to stand up and say, ‘Hey, look at me, I’m the next Ronald Reagan.’ Well, almost all of us in the party are big fans of Ronald Reagan.”
Paul expressed a similar sentiment Monday in an Breitbart op-ed, although he didn’t mention Cruz by name.
The Kentucky Republican reaffirmed his commitment to Reagan’s mantra of “peace through strength” and argued his position on the Ukraine crisis is no different from that of his fellow Republicans.
“Virtually all of the opinions that have been coming from Republicans are somewhat the same on this, that [Russian President] Putin should be condemned, he should be isolated,” he said. “I favor sanctions on Putin. So for people to characterize that as somehow not being the Reagan position, I think they need to have a rereading of Reagan, frankly.”
Paul said he didn’t want an apology from Cruz and would instead settle for the Texas senator “presenting his own ideas.”
