WATCH: Rand Paul Praises Trump for Troop Withdrawal on CNN

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Dec 23, 2018

Sunday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” and defended President Donald J. Trump’s decision to remove U.S. troops from Syria.

“I’m very proud of the president. This is exactly what he promised,” Paul said. “And I think the people agree with him actually. I think people believe we’ve been at war too long in too many places, and we do need to turn attention to problems we have at home here: roads, bridges, schools.”

Trump campaigned on ending the pointless and everlasting military conflict in the Middle East, a stance with which most of his base agreed. After all, it is not the pro-war D.C. commentariat that is actually fights these wars. By and large, it is the ordinary Americans who voted for Trump.

“We’ve spent several trillion dollars on these wars everywhere, and I think the president promised he’d be different, and it’s really one of the reasons he won,” Paul said. “Because he actually attracts independents who aren’t beholden to either party who say, you know what? Why don’t we turn attention back to America?”

Jake Tapper, who hosted the CNN show Sunday morning, lambasted Trump for allegedly ignoring the advice of his former Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis, who resigned over differences of opinion in foreign policy. Tapper, however, failed to mention that Mattis’ stance on war in Syria was the same as Trump’s as early as 2013, when the Marine Corps General railed against a war in Syria.

“We all want to do something to stop this but…we have no moral obligation to do the impossible and hawk our children’s future just because we have the desire to do something,” Mattis said at the time. “When you go to war, it cant be a half step.”

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