Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., on Monday voiced his consent of President Donald Trump’s position on Russia despite the harsh criticism the President faced after his press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Fox News informed.
“It’s gotten so ridiculous that someone has to stand up and say we should try to engage even our adversaries and open up our lines of communication,” Paul told Politico after the controversial press conference.
“We’re going to talk to the President about some small steps in order to try to thaw the relations between our countries,” the senator added, emphasizing that he’s scheduled to go to Russia early next month to continue the dialogue that Trump started.
Paul stated that he hopes to meet with Trump before the trip to “to see if there’s anything he wants us to follow up on.” The trip, in his view, will allow the U.S. to eventually begin collaborating with Russia in order to stop war in Syria, denuclearize North Korea and get Russian military out of Ukraine.
When it came to Trump’s remarks following the one-on-one meeting, Rand voiced his disagreement with most Republicans and criticized those slamming the President.
“Republicans that are making the criticism are either the pro-war Republicans like (Sen. John) McCain and (Sen. Lindsey) Graham or the anti-Trump ones like (Sen. Ben) Sasse,” he told Politico “They are motivated by their persistent and consistent dislike of the President.”
Trump provoked the ire of the Republicans after accusing both Russia and the U.S. for strained relations and by not supporting the U.S. intelligence assessments that Russia interfered in the 2016 elections.
Trump said he has great confidence in the intelligence community, but Putin gave a “strong and powerful” denial. He said he doesn’t “see any reason why” Russia would be behind election meddling.
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