Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul hit back at New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Sunday night, attacking him for demanding money for Sandy aid, after Christie called Paul’s libertarian views on national security “dangerous” last week.
The Associated Press reported that after a fundraiser in Tennessee on Sunday, Paul told reporters that Christie’s views would harm Republicans chances in a national election, and said that Christie’s requests for federal aid funding after Hurricane Sandy was damaging to national security.
“They’re precisely the same people who are unwilling to cut the spending,” Paul said, referring to Christie and New York Rep. Peter King, another Republican who has criticized Paul, “and their ‘Gimme, gimme, gimme — give me all my Sandy money now.’ Those are the people who are bankrupting the government and not letting enough money be left over for national defense.”
Christie, last week, called the libertarian approach to national security “a very dangerous thought,” fingering Paul as one such offender.
“If you talk about some privacy issues like that, I think you will find youth coming to you,” Paul told reporters Sunday.
As for the rift with Christie, a likely competitor of Paul’s for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, Paul said he would prefer not to be in it, but that he would not take attacks lying down.
“I didn’t start this one and I don’t plan on starting things by criticizing other Republicans,” he said. “But if they want to make me the target, they will get it back in spades.”