 Senator Rand Paul spearheaded a filibuster against this bill in the Senate and I've pulled just a minute or so of that You know, I think 20 something hour filibuster That I want to play so let's roll that and I'd like to ask you about the connection between Foreign aid and border security and whether there is one, but let's hear from Rand Paul What we have here is a Ukraine first bill This bill was never really about securing our border, but about securing another's country border What we have here is a failure of the elites of Washington on both sides of the aisle The leadership in the Democrat Party the leadership in the Republican Party What we have here is a failure of these elites to understand that the American people want to put America first 61% of Americans live from paycheck to paycheck and they want to put Ukraine first I want you to talk to your constituents at home the ones who live paycheck to paycheck and tell them why you're shipping $60 billion to Ukraine so what could just talk reflect a little bit on you know this shift that has happened within the GOP and You know, what is it? You know, there there's some some different foreign policy factions right now both in the Republican on the Republican side and on the Democratic side What are the major fractions and who do you think is winning the argument right now? On both sides, yes, yeah, I mean so I think it's My my sort of guidepost as it's always is that the greatest Risk of a Republican administration is a war with Iran and the greatest risk of a Democratic administration is a war with Russia And I think if you look at how the Trump and Biden administrations have played out We obviously got way closer to a war with Russia and got way closer to a war with Iran During the past, you know Democratic and Republican administrations, respectively so What Russia exists, especially in the Democratic establishment mind space as this kind of great boogeyman, right? And I don't think this is expressed so much in the elected official level, but you don't have to go very far MSNBC a lot of the center-left press, you know sort of sees Putin as the head of the the global right for lack of a better term, right? He's a gangster white Christian murderer heterosexual whatever like and so You know and versus Iran is the same thing. It's it's it's it's the big, you know, it's the big Muslim power and I so I think you see a lot of motivation on the center-left Democratic side for this war. I think you see some dissent. I mean, I think on the vote last night Senator Sanders and Senator Merkley from Oregon, you know, they sort of traditional super kind of like progressive You know Eugene McCarthy kind of wing It opposed some of this, but you know, even Sanders his office has been has been pretty hawkish on Russia I think really since the 2016 bit, I mean Sanders was a complete Russia gate believer unfortunately in my view And so I think you see a rather unicameral response or a united response for the Democrats. There's behind the scenes Realities of the fissures before the 2022 election the the House of Progressive Caucus considered some sort of, you know, more moderate language resolution on Ukraine But Jayapal the Congresswoman from Washington State, I believe Nixed it or was was controlled into nixing it So I think you know, I think you see pretty much democratic unity on the war There of course is, you know, not at the elected level. There is the sort of Glenn Greenwald No, Chomsky sort of left libertarian thing with it I don't think they're super represented in the elected level, especially with a Democratic president on the Republican side I think you see a residual hawkish conservative Establishment which is weak so contrary to the Democratic establishment, which still controls The Democratic Party, so that's why Biden and Clinton have been the nominees of the party the last 10 years The Republican establishment is weaker. So that's why Trump has been the nominee of the party the last 10 years And these Republican establishment view, of course, these people like Mitch McConnell Romney representative like voices by like the Wall Street Journal editorial board national review It's very what I would call They would probably call it themselves, you know, Neo Reaganite, right, which is like Reagan wouldn't abandon the Ukrainians Even though it's like I think a tendentious counterfactual line of argument they make it and they still have sort of default support in elected races that aren't Super high-profile, right? Like, you know, if like the congressional committee of the Republicans With the senatorial committee of the Republicans Wants to back somebody in the state and spend a lot of money I mean, for instance the the Montana race is actually a dissent race this year between mr. Sheehy and mr. Rosendale is actually pretty emblematic it's something that nobody's paying attention to there's not even a million people in Montana I believe and You know like she he is the sort of like classic military that you know will be pretty hawkish I think at least at least In his default rhetoric unless he's sort of pushed in a direction versus someone like Rosendale who has more bespoke politics You know, even Trump, you know himself can sort of Savilly skirt of some of these wings, but it's clear the Trump's own biases are clearly with the anti-assalture and his own views And then on the other side, I think you see a lot of rising stars in the party on the Republican side really just sort of jumping the line and Fighting each other to be the vanguard of this stuff So I think on the Senate side or even the congressional side the most important elected official on the stuff is now JD advance I think the most long-standing Articulator of this perspective has been rampall Although obviously rampall there's some differences between his sort of libertarian wing of conservatism and the sort of nationalist way And they came with Trump's election Matt Gaetz has mentioned Josh Hawley has had a certain perspective I think it's a little bit different than these guys and then there's also people of course who who argue that they are furthering the Trump mission By supporting Ukraine, which I think is not so much an argument. You can make but they're making it. This is people like Pompeo Like Pompeo the former Secretary of State and probably more quietly someone like Tom Cotton But again, I just think the tide has has super turned. I mean if the Ukrainians had done as well As they had done in 2022 over a series of months of 23 and 24 perhaps we were having a different discussion But the reality is that is that the war is not going well with unprecedented support from from the West And then I think a lot of a lot of ways we've just sort of bounced back to where we were in the late 2010s where the Republican Party is just really skeptical with stuff Is there a difference between? You know you mentioned you know rant Rand Paul's long been this libertarian non-interventionist in the Senate and then you've got the rising sort of nationalist America first is of JD Vance Who is opposed to Ukraine, but it's not clear to me how that translates to any other Like I can kind of predict where Rand Paul is going to fall on any given foreign intervention JD Vance not so much. So would you be able to clarify that for me a little bit? Are they Their allied on this issue, but would we expect that coalition to hold for other major foreign policy? What's an example where you think you could fall apart? Well, I mean you mentioned Iran is a big You know that that's kind of like the boogeyman of the Republican Party Trump obviously assassinated one of their top generals is that something where you know, you would see a Rand Paul and a JD Vance coming together, let's say things in the Middle East You know this starts turning into a bigger and bigger regional war. Would you see it? likely that they would Be on the same side in that type of scenario I think you're basically intuiting a dispositional Difference between Paul and Vance on the Middle East. I think it's a reasonable intuition however, I think on the Functional major issues and votes that we have records on Paul also opposed the Iran deal. No Republican in Congress supported the deal So there's no distinction between Vance's public statements and Paul's votes on that and then It's hard to imagine that Vance wouldn't have been and the contingent of people that were around Tucker Carlson During the Soleimani strike that you mentioned You know the kind of people lobbying Trump not to escalate further. So while there may be some philosophical framework distinctions between the two as Expressed in any meaningful way. I think they would pretty much be on the same side It's it's it's hard who knows what that was gonna have in the future, but it's it's hard to imagine Vance at the van Carter supporting worth Ron. This is the argue This is the fundamental argument that Rand Paul was making in that clip. We played at the beginning where you know That you're hearing more and more from The the Rand Paul's and the JD Vance's that why are we spending all this money to Ukraine? When we have all these problems on the border when people are living paycheck to paycheck Do you think that is a in? Effective message and like are these things necessarily like how how linked are they in actuality like? border security and Whatever, you know, how much how many millions of dollars we give to Ukraine? Yeah, I think it's very effective and I think and I think it's way more linked than people like to think I mean The US could militarize the border I mean look I'm not It is a 2,000 mile long border. It is not a joke to secure it But I don't think it is beyond us capability And it you certainly became a case that the US has tried as hard as it can while maintaining this global Empire of dubious utility to the average American. I think part of my Frustration or concern is that I see the connection between quality of life issues in American cities and you know federal government authorizing foreign expenditures like you know aid abroad as I mean these are just kind of entirely different levels of government Right like to some degree you're attempting to say, you know, the US needs to Congress needs to reign in you know, it's authorization of You know aid packages directed toward Ukraine or Israel or what have you and you're also saying Eric Adams needs to do something specific In terms of like, you know, improving NYPD patrol of subways, right? We're just talking about entirely different levels of government and different voters Different politicians like it feels a little bit like these aren't apples to apples comparisons to me Well, yeah, okay. I think that's fair But I think Carlson is somebody who comes from the you know the media business and I think what he would see Is that it matters what Americans are talking about and so yeah, we don't want to be embarrassed of our country We don't want to be embarrassed and then be traveling abroad and fuel a sense of like wow Do they have a set on almost like pride of ownership type thing? The US is spending 30 years talking about the conditions that we have to improve abroad Meanwhile, the amount of airspace that is given to the shape of Ohio With Bronx is pretty limited nationally a national space. I think that's really what he's Kind of talking about. I'm not sure he's recommending a works projects progress administration for for for Brooklyn But you know, I'm I hope that's not the case I do sometimes worry the way that I hear some of the national conservatives talking about this stuff that there is a You know, even your your comments about, you know, militarizing the border. It's always like, okay We can't use our personnel and our toys are all our military toys overseas So we're gonna somehow like turn all that stuff Internal and we have to like spend all this money on infrastructure here I don't know like I guess that's the you know where the libertarians bristle against the national conservatives even if we ultimately agree that are our Global military presence is way over extended and inappropriately used. Yeah, but I mean I do think that functionally though, this is Do respect to a lot of people that we all know It's a little pie in the sky Like what like what is the next Republican administration gonna do like what is like that? What is like the most guaranteed piece of legislation that Trump's gonna get through? What is it? I don't know. What is it? You see AJ extension. They're gonna extend the Trump tax cuts. Yeah This is like the one thing they're for sure gonna do right and then if they like it and if they executive action the border Like I mean you have to make a libertarian case for open borders effectively And I know you probably have people in your Milo that will make the case But I don't think that's gonna be like, you know a watchman episode or whatever Hey, thanks for watching that clip from our new show just asking questions You can watch another clip here or the full episode here New episodes drop every week. 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