Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) discussed the failure of his amendment in the Senate to prohibit the transfer of F-16s and Abrams tanks to Egypt Thursday on Fox News:
ERIC BOLLING: Senator, thanks for joining us. The amendment failed today. Tell us about the amendment. What were you trying to do?
SEN. RAND PAUL: This amendment would have stopped the transfer of F-16s and tanks to Egypt. You have seen those pictures of tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people rioting in the street. Does that look like a stable country to you? Combine that with comment comments by President Morsi that were translated to say that jews were blood suckers and descendents of apes and pigs. Doesn’t sound like a country we should be sending our mosted a vanned weapons to the other side up here, they’re so used to doing one thing, they’re so used to having unlimited money, and the fact they think we should buy our friends. They keep doing the same thing but it’s wrong.
BOLLING: So many people approach me and say, what are we doing? We can barely pay our own bills. we’re second F-16s to Egypt and we’re not even sure what Morsi is? Muslim brotherhood new? The old fashioned? What is he?
PAUL: Here’s the thing. If you polled this question, I think 80% of the people are with me, that we shouldn’t be sending weapons to Egypt, but if you take a vote up here, 80% of the senators voted against me. But that shows you how out of touch they are in Washington and also is a good reason why we ought to have term limits because frank live these guys just don’t get it.
BOLLING: What’s their point? Why did they vote against your amendment banning the F-16s. We need to make sure the country stays stable?
PAUL: Some people see it as a make work project. With give them money they’ll buy weapons from us and that creates jobs. If that were true why don’t we give countries around the world money to buy our cars? It’s foolish. But then some of them say, well, they won’t let us use the Suez Canal. My response to that is, they should want us to use the Suez Canal because there are fees for going through the came. They should want to be participating in trade because we send them food because they can’t feed themselves. So, we don’t have to pay England to be our friend. Why do we have to pay Egypt to be our friend? I think before we send them anything, they should act like our friend and not burn our flag and let a mob get on top of our embassy and chant, death to America. It’s a huge mistake to send them weapons.
BOLLING: I’m guessing one of the countries concerned about sending f-16s to Egypt would be Israel. Where are the pro Israel lobbies on these F-16s going to Egypt?
PAUL: It’s quite interesting. I’ve talked to a lot of the — a lot of people think there’s only one pro Israel lobby. There’s one dominant one but there’s many others, and also members of these groups, and I guarantee if I went to any of their general membership meetings, the pro Israel Americans are with me on this issue. But they need to call their leadership because many of your pro Israel groups are lobbying against me in Washington. They’re lobbying for sending weapons to a country that very well could be an enemy of Egypt — I mean an enemy of Israel and has been an enemy of Israel, and I think if they’re membership knew these people were up here conspiring in Washington to send more weapons to Egypt, and then Israel has to have then more weapons times two, I think most pro Israel Americans would be upset to find out the lobbying groups are lobbying against Israel’s best interests.
BOLLING: The one I’m thinking of is APAC they were in favor of these going to Egypt? Is that right?
PAUL: You better ask them directly. That’s been murky today and we have been trying to pin that down. My understanding is phone calls were made from APAC lobbying for weapons to be sent to Egypt. So if you’re a member of APAC and prize our friendship with Israel as I do, we need to call your leadership say, what in the heck is going on? Why would you want to send plays to Egypt to president Morsi, who is an anti-Semite who doesn’t believe in the Holocaust. I think their leadership does not represent their membership and we’re trying to get that word out.