Rand Paul casts suspicion on himself in Donald Trump’s Russia scandal
At a time when Senate Republicans are becoming increasingly unafraid of the hollow intra-party threats being made by an impotent Donald Trump, and increasingly fearful of being tied to Trump’s toxic unpopularity, even his few close allies like Mitch McConnell are laying low for fear of being dragged down with him. That’s why it stands out as so suspicious that Rand Paul, who hates Trump as much as most Democrats to, is the only Republican Senator popping up to defend him – and for his Russia scandal, no less.
Senate Republicans are coming to view Trump’s Russia scandal as a live wire. Sure, some of them are willing to run generic partisan interference by promoting fake news about Hillary Clinton having supposedly colluded with Ukraine. If they can take the public’s focus off Trump’s Russia scandal for long enough, maybe they can pass some of their legislation. But none of them have been willing to defend Trump’s behavior toward Russia. Now that Trump is trying to scapegoat their former colleague Jeff Sessions in the Russia scandal, Senate Republicans are more likely than ever to stay as far away from Trump’s Russia scandal as possible. That is with the sudden exception, bizarrely, of Rand Paul.
Here’s what Rand Paul tweeted this morning: “I agree with Donald Trump, his Attorney General should not have recused himself over reported incidental contacts with Russian officials” (link). Why is Paul suddenly putting his head in the lion’s mouth by publicly marrying himself to the Trump campaign’s treasonous election collusion with the Russian government? There is simply no partisan political motivation for this. Instead, doing this can only serve to harm Paul, and he’s been at this long enough to know as much. Yet he made a point of doing it today anyway.
This behavior is so suspicious on the part of Rand Paul that it’s enough to ask the question, if only hypothetically for now, of whether the Kremlin might be pulling his strings just as thoroughly as it’s been pulling Donald Trump’s strings. Is it possible that Putin has blackmail material on Rand Paul and is now using it? The only other explanation would be that Paul is suddenly marrying himself to the Russia scandal without any particular reason for doing so. At the least, it’s time to look more closely at Rand Paul’s actions and connections, both with regard to Trump and to Russia.
