Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is not down with one of his party’s top presidential contenders on foreign policy — but he sounds pretty amenable to the presumed Democratic frontrunner, Hillary Clinton.
The Associated Press’ Steve Peoples caught up with McCain Wednesday before he appeared at a Foreign Policy Initiative forum in Washington, D.C. The senator weighed in on the foreign policy credentials of Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who most believe will run for president, and Clinton.
On foreign policy, John McCain says Rand Paul “has no credibility”; Hillary Clinton? “I think she’s OK,” McCain says.
— Steve Peoples (@sppeoples) December 3, 2014
McCain and Paul have sparred over foreign policy for years. Back in summer 2013, when asked about the potential 2016 match-up of Paul and Clinton, McCain said it would be a “tough choice,” though he then told the New Yorker this October that he would support Paul if he were the GOP’s nominee.
And just this week, Paul was jabbing McCain for wanting “15 wars more” during his own panel discussion, as CNN reported Tuesday.
The continued war in Afghanistan, the lack of accountability for Bush-era civil liberty violations and indeed human rights violations, and the acceptance by Obama of (not all, but a lot) the War on Terrorism framing has made foreign policy really, really weird at the moment.
No idea how this plays out in 2016 honestly, but I think it’s a lot more likely we get a neo-con on the Republican side and…who knows, for the Democrats.
Clinton-McCain 2016
Continuity We Can Believe In
So, McCain thinks Rand Paul has no credibility on foreign policy, but he’d still support him if he’s the Republican nominee, because…
Country first?
Yikes. Not exactly an endorsement I would like if I were Clinton.