Rand Paul blames Republican 'hawks' for ISIS' existence

Sen. Rand Paul
(Image credit: David Greedy/Getty Images)

In a Morning Joe interview Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) blamed Republican "hawks" like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) for ISIS' rise and growth.

"ISIS exists and grew stronger because of the hawks in our party who gave arms indiscriminately, and most of those arms were snatched up by ISIS," Paul told Joe Scarborough. "These hawks also wanted to bomb Assad, which would have made ISIS' job even easier. They've created these people."

Paul also said that ISIS is "all over Libya" because Republicans "loved Hillary Clinton's war" and "wanted more of it." He also said that both Libya and Iraq are "failed states."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Continue reading for free

We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.

Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.

Meghan DeMaria

Meghan DeMaria is a staff writer at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked for USA Today and Marie Claire.