Is Rand Paul Really a Traitor?: Podcast

Short answer: no

Matt Welch | 7.16.2018 2:20 PM

(CNN)

:15 :15

Is Rand Paul Really a Traitor?: Podcast

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has been taking his lumps in the media and other sectors of the anti-Trumposphere for these comments on CNN Sunday about Russia's hackery into the 2016 presidential campaign: "If we have proof that they did it, we should spend our time protecting ourselves instead of having this witch hunt on the president. I think we need to be done with this so we can protect our election….We all do it. What we need to do is make sure our electoral process is protected. They are not going to admit it in the same way we're not going to admit we were involved in the Ukrainian elections or the Russian elections." To which Mother Jones D.C. Bureau Chief David Corn tweeted simply: "Traitor."

This is one of several often-hysterical Trump/Russia-related controversies tackled today on the editor-roundtable version of the Reason Podcast, featuring Katherine Mangu-Ward, Peter Suderman, Nick Gillespie, and me. Is the U.S. president's seeming equivalence of Russian and American interference in other countries' domestic elections accurate, and/or inappropriate? What does it mean (and is it meaningful) that Trump calls the European Union, China, and Russia "foes"? Is it proper for the resident of 1600 Pennsylvania to express clear preferences in the politics of its allies? These and other questions come under vigorous, if world-weary, debate.

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Audio production by Ian Keyser.

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Relevant links from the show:

"Trump Apologies for America Ahead of Helsinki Summit With Putin," by Elizabeth Nolan Brown

"12 Russian Operatives Indicted for Hacking Democrats, Voting Systems During 2016 U.S. Presidential Election," by Scott Shackford

"The Case Against the Case Against the Mueller Investigation," by Jonathan H. Adler

"Trump's Economic Illiteracy Has Deep Roots," by Eric Boehm

"Trump Wants to Win at Trade. He's Missing the Point," by Katherine Mangu-Ward

"Donald Trump, Lying, and Eroding Social Trust," by Ronald Bailey

"This Year's World Cup Is a Tale of Cultural Blending, Written by Immigrants," by Eric Boehm

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