The Freedom Partners forum took place on Sunday night featuring Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio. The event was sponsored by a political organization backed by the Koch brothers at their annual winter retreat. The forum focused on economic issues but also delved into the topics of foreign policy.
Report from Fox News:
Rand Paul is demonstrating how he could disrupt the Republican presidential field if he seeks the nomination, sparring with potential rivals over Iran, Cuba and the Pentagon’s budget in a face-to-face forum that offered an early preview of the feisty policy debate to come.
The Kentucky Republican joined fellow first-term senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida on stage Sunday evening in California for a summit organized by Freedom Partners. That group is the central hub of the powerful network of organizations backed by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch.
Each likely candidate has broad backing from tea party activists, who helped push them to victory over establishment-minded rivals in their most recent races. But a split is already starting to emerge even before they formally decide if they will run, and Paul seems to be an eager wedge.
“I’m a big fan of trying the diplomatic option as long as we can,” Paul said of talks with Iran over its nuclear plan. “I do think diplomacy is better than war.”
Here is a 9 minute courtesy of the Tampa Bay Times via Youtube:
So far, I’ve been unable to find the entire video which should span about an hour. That may pop up sometime today and I’ll update the post accordingly. If you find a link with the full video, please leave in the comments.
