Sen. Rand Paul on Thursday charged that Senate lawmakers so biased against President Donald Trump, they would rather risk war than continue diplomacy with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"Trump Derangement Syndrome has officially come to the Senate," Paul said on the Senate floor as he objected to a Sen. Bernie Sanders’ resolution that demands Russia stop interfering in U.S. elections and imposes tight new sanctions.
"The hatred for the president is so intense, that partisans would rather risk war than give diplomacy a chance … This has got to stop. This is crazy hatred of the president. We don’t have to have war, we can still have engagement."
The Kentucky Republican said he is not forgetting that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential race.
"Absolutely, we should protect the integrity of our elections. But simply bringing the hatred of the president to the Senate floor in order to say, 'We're done with diplomacy, we're going to add more sanctions and more sanctions," Paul said.
"We should stand firm and say, 'Stay the hell out of our elections,' but we should not stick our head in the ground and say we're not going to talk to them."
Paul was one of the few Republicans to stick up for Trump following his meeting and joint press conference with Putin in Helsinki this week – an event some criticized as the president kowtowing to the Russian strongman.
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