SARASOTA — Likely presidential contender Rand Paul used a speech here on Saturday night to draw sharp contrasts with U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, a potential GOP primary opponent, when it comes to foreign policy.
Paul, a senator from Kentucky, never mentioned Rubio by name, but reminded more than 400 people at a rally in Rubio’s home state about his “colleagues in the U.S. Senate” who supported toppling Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011 and backed “Hillary Clinton’s War in Libya.”
In 2011, Rubio was one of the Senate’s strongest advocates for the U.S. getting involved in Libya and called for Gadhafi’s ouster.
Clinton, who is considered a likely Democratic candidate for president, was secretary of state when NATO countries, including the U.S., intervened in Libya.
“Hillary thought it would be a great idea to go to Libya and topple the government there,” Paul said at a rally at an airport hangar at Dolphin Aviation, on the Sarasota County border with Manatee County. “You know what we have there now? We have a jihadist wonderland.”
Given the chippy foreign policy debate Rubio and Paul have been having in the media for months, it was clear whom Paul was talking about when doling out criticism of Republicans who supported the intervention in Libya.
In December, Rubio suggested Paul was becoming “chief cheerleader of Obama's foreign policy” because of his support for removing some parts of the U.S. embargo on Cuba. That comment came after Paul said Rubio was acting like an isolationist because of his Cuba positions.
Paul’s camp responded then by calling Rubio “captain of the GOP cheerleading team” for Obama’s bombing of Libya.
After his speech in Sarasota on Saturday, Paul continued his criticism on Libya in an interview with the Herald-Tribune, saying it was “one of the worst foreign policy decisions of the last decade.”
“I think the Libyan war will be up for debate both in the primary and also in the fall against Hillary Clinton,” Paul said.
Widespread militia violence has sent Libya into chaos less than four years after Gadhafi was killed.
In recent months, terrorists groups have stepped up their attacks in Libya in a bid to destabilize the country.
Paul was in Sarasota to accept the local party’s “Republican of the Year Award.”
Sarasota Republican Party chairman Joe Gruters acknowledged he’s taken some heat from Rubio and Jeb Bush’s supporters for giving the award to Paul, particularly in the very state that Bush led as governor and Rubio represents in the Senate.
Still, Gruters said his aim is to bring all of the top presidential contenders through Sarasota County to give voters and key donors here a chance to see these figures up close. Already, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, Bush and Rubio have made public appearances in Sarasota County over the last year.
Gruters said he’s also closing in on bringing retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, real estate billionaire Donald Trump and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker back to the area.
All three are considered potential presidential contenders.
The latest polls show Bush and Rubio leading other potential contenders in polling in Florida. But in Iowa, where the first presidential caucus is set to be held in early 2016, Walker and Paul are leading a crowded field, according to the latest Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics poll.
