Why Senator Rand Paul Voted to Limit Donald Trump’s War Powers
Listen to the original audio · Transcribed with NVIDIA Parakeet · Timestamps stay in sync with the live audio
The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC and The New Yorker. Welcome to the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Ramdick. There was a time when libertarians in politics seemed extreme somehow, their concerns esoteric. The core libertarian principle of a small, even minimal government aligned with the Republican platform, but just to a degree.
At the same time, libertarians have often taken a very distinct approach on civil liberties and many other social issues. But as Donald Trump tries to impose a more and more authoritarian style of government, one of the most consistent critics within his party has been Rand Paul, the libertarian leading senator from the state of Kentucky. Senator Paul was the sole Republican to vote in favor of restricting Trump's power to prosecute war in Iran. One of the few remaining deficit hawks, he's bucked Donald Trump's priorities on tariffs, funding the Iran war, and the ballooning budget for ICE. During a fight over the tax bill last year, Trump said Rand Paul, quote, loves voting no on everything, unquote.
He's called him a sick wacko. Rand Paul ran for president in 2016, and he may well be a contender in 2028. And we spoke this past week. Senator, we're going to talk at some length about the war in Iran and about President Trump, but before I engage the war itself, it's not gone unnoticed in a lot of circles, whether left, right, or center, that the nature Of the things that the President has said and how he said it, whether it's about wiping out a civilization of 92 million people, or just how he's conducted himself in the course of these wars, has been very worrying to a lot of people, whether in the Republican Party or Democratic Party.
We already have this episode, so unlocking it is cheap and permanent: the full transcript (31 minutes, 5,584 words), segment and word-level timestamps, and .txt, .srt, .vtt and word-level JSON downloads, as many times as you like, forever.
No account needed, we create one from your checkout email. With credits it is 1 credit; packs start at 10 episodes for $5, and monthly plans are cheaper still.