Rand Paul (file photo)
Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul has taken to Twitter to seek tips about contributions to the Clinton Foundation that came from foreign governments. Paul suggests those donations may have steered then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy objectives.
“There’s a book coming out in the next week or so-called ‘Clinton’s Cash’,” Paul said this morning. “I think a lot of details are going to be in there about donations from foreign countries, donations from foreign individuals and how they may or may not have influenced governmental policy.”
More than a year ago Paul asserted Hillary Clinton was unfit to be president because she had failed to address the security concerns of the U.S. ambassador to Libya who killed at a diplomatic outpost in Benghazi.
“I think the media in many ways let her off the hook because the media just said, ‘She said: “Oh, this is my underling’s job.”‘ And it’s like you’re the secretary of state and this is Libya and you don’t know that the ambassador has been sending cable after cable, pleading for the security team to stay in August?” Paul said today. “And so I think that’s inexcusable.”
Now that both Paul and Clinton are “official” 2016 candidates for the presidency, Paul is alleg ing revelations in this new book will show links between Clinton’s decisions inside the state department and the donations and speaking fees her husband collected from foreign governments.
“I think that’s alarming,” Paul said. “The constitution’s pretty specific that we didn’t want foreign donations to be involved in our politics and so I think this is something that’s going to have to really be thoroughly looked at and the American people are going to have to decide whether or not this is unseemly behavior.”
The Clinton campaign has accused Paul of joining those who are peddling “absurd conspiracy theories” in an effort to distract voters from real issues. Paul is headed to Iowa this weekend where he’ll appear alongside Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio and seven other Republicans who say they’re considering a run for the White House. Paul spoke briefly with Radio Iowa by phone this morning, drawing a distinction with his GOP competitors on a key foreign policy issue: Iran.
“I think that negotiations are better than war and I voted for sanctions on Iran to try to provoke them and prompt them into negotiations, so I think it’s a good thing that we’re negotiating,” Paul said. “There are some in my party who just, I think, really want war and they don’t want negotiations — period. Some of them have frankly said that it’s time that we end the negotiations.”
Paul said he’s increasingly skeptical of the negotiations, however, after seeing how the Iranians are interpreting the details.
“Because I’m in favor of negotiations doesn’t mean I’m in favor of any agreement,” Paul said.
Paul supports the effort to pass legislation that would require a vote in congress on any deal with the Iranians. A conservative group with ties to the “Swift Boat” ad campaign against 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry ran ads earlier this month in Iowa criticizing Paul for being open to negotiations with Iran.