Rand Paul Links Trump, Clinton, Bush

Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul on Wednesday sought to tie together Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush.

The first-term Kentucky senator said Trump, the real estate mogul-turned-GOP primary polling leader, is a “fake conservative” who cannot be trusted with the nation’s highest office. He pointed to reports that both Trump and Bush, Florida’s former governor, spoke to the Clintons before announcing their presidential runs.

“There’s not much difference between Clinton and Bush and Trump, frankly,” Paul said on “The Laura Ingraham Show.”

In a separate appearance this morning, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie also linked Bush to Clinton.

Paul told Ingraham there is not much difference between Bush and Clinton on how the United States should respond to threats such as ISIS.

“They both want to be at war in the Middle East,” he said.

Bush himself may have added a little credence to the charge by announcing that he will help liberal comedian Stephen Colbert celebrate the launch of his era as host of the “Late Show,” appearing on the debut September 8.

Paul said Libya is more dangerous now than it was before the Obama administration, with Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, intervened to help rebels overthrow Moammar Gadhafi.

“Every time we’ve gone in and toppled a secular dictator, we’ve gotten chaos, the rise of radical Islam,” Paul said. “We’ve made ISIS stronger. … Most of our interventions over there have backfired on us.”

“I think the No. 1 thing we ought to understand about the Middle East is that every time we’ve gone in and toppled a secular dictator, we’ve gotten chaos, the rise of radical Islam,” Paul said. “We’ve made ISIS stronger. … Most of our interventions over there have backfired on us.”

Paul said he opposed arming Syrian rebels because of their ties to radical Islam. He also said that while he favors supplying the Kurds, he would oppose direct U.S. military intervention.

“I’m not about to send our young men and women over there. I just think they’ve (factions in the Middle East) been killing each other for a thousand years, and I think they’ll keep killing each other for another thousand years,” he said. “If you want another land war, you’ve got plenty of other Republicans you can vote for, because I’m not sending our troops back over there.”

Christie also told Ingraham that voters do not want a replay of the Iraq War debate.

“There’s no reason to go back and try to re-litigate this,” said the governor. “It’s bad decision-making by Gov. Bush. But I’m not running his campaign.”

If the Republican candidate gets sucked into a debate about Iraq, the party will lose, Christie said.

“Successful campaigns are always about the future,” he said.

Christie blamed Clinton for the rise of ISIS and blasted her recent statement that she would offer solutions to that problem later in the campaign.

“This was a person who was in charge of American foreign policy for four years,” he said. “They have become a force in this world under their watch. It is outrageous.”

“This was a person who was in charge of American foreign policy for four years,” he said. “They have become a force in this world under their watch. It is outrageous.”

Christie said the rise of Bernie Sanders, the self-described socialist senator from Vermont, is evidence of discontent with Clinton across the political spectrum.

“Even members of the Democratic Party have figured out that she has no business being president of the United States,” he said.