Mitch Perry
Jeb Bush isn’t the only leading Republican presidential contender from Florida struggling to get his story straight on whether invading Iraq was the right thing to do.
On Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace refused to let Marco Rubio off the hook regarding where he stands on the issue, since he had what appear to be two completely different answers to that question in the past two months.
Wallace also grilled Rubio for displaying a lack of leadership in the way he handled the issue of comprehensive immigration. It was one of the best one-on-one interviews we’ve seen during this campaign season, and it’s only going to get hotter for Rubio as he continues to ascend in the presidential sweepstakes.
But what about some of the other GOP presidential candidates? While Rubio was doing Fox, Rand Paul was on Meet The Press and Scott Walker was doing Face the Nation (but no candidate appeared on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopolous, though he did snag Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell).
Speaking of Walker, he’s been out of the media spotlight the past month, in part because was recently in Israel (in a trip partially financed by Sheldon Adelson), trying to earn some foreign policy gravitas. In fact, he’s got a lot now, or so he told Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation Sunday.
“As a governor, I’ve been, just recently in Germany, in Spain and France,” Walker said. “Earlier in the year, it was the United Kingdom on trade related missions. A few years back in China and Japan. So, that’s probably the most of any governor of either party has is that experience in terms of trade relations.”
So in case you thought Walker wouldn’t be ready to be commander in chief on Day One, well, he says otherwise.
Meanwhile on MTP, Paul wouldn’t commit to doing another filibuster in the Senate if McConnell attempts to push for an extension of the Patriot Act. Last week the House of Representatives voted down Section 215 of the law, the expiring provision that is the basis of the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of U.S. phone records. McConnell has proposed an extension that would give Congress until July 31 to work out a deal.
NBC’s Chuck Todd asked Paul if he were elected president, would he just try to eliminate the NSA? Paul said he wouldn’t go that far, but instead would have the agency concentrate more on going after potential foreign threats.
“I would have the NSA target their activities, more and more, towards our enemies,” Paul said. “I think if you’re not spending so much time and money collecting the information of innocent Americans, maybe we could’ve spent more time knowing that one of the Tsarnaev boys, one of the Boston bombers, had gone back to Chechnya.”
While all that was going on, Bush was on the Christian Broadcasting Network on Saturday saying that Christian business owners should not have to provide services for gay weddings if it goes against their religious beliefs.
“Yes, absolutely, if it’s based on a religious belief,” he said when asked whether businesses should be able to decline services to same-sex weddings. He also said that he does not believe that same-sex marriages are constitutional.
In other news …
Sixty-four once growlers will be able for purchase at a local craft brewery near you beginning July 1. A look at what else the recently signed legislation included is in our story here.
