Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a former 2016 White House candidate, said Tuesday that President-elect Donald Trump shouldn’t name Rudy Giuliani to lead the State Department because of his support for the Iraq War.
{mosads}”I think he should not appoint somebody to be in charge of his foreign policy that disagrees with him,” Paul told reporters. “I think both [John] Bolton and Giuliani explicitly disagree with Donald Trump’s positions. So if they need to be somewhere, they need to be somewhere where they’re not in charge of foreign policy.”
Paul added, “You know, I supported Donald Trump because I agreed that the Iraq War was a mistake.”
The Kentucky Republican wrote an op-ed on Tuesday morning arguing that putting Bolton, a former U.N. ambassador, atop the State Department would “betray voters.”
Whomever Trump names will need to be approved by the Foreign Relations Committee, upon which Paul sits.
Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the committee chairman, declined to “handicap” Trump’s Cabinet, though he has himself also been floated as a possibility for the top U.S. diplomat.
Asked if he thinks his Senate colleagues would join him in opposing the nominations, Paul demurred.
“I hope he’ll find somebody who has a more realistic point of view,” he said. “In fact, I think Bob Corker would be a lot better.”