On Andrea Tantaros syndicated radio show on Monday, American Enterprise Institute fellow Charles Murray reacted to Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer and Gov. Chris Christie’s criticism of Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, defending Paul and saying that he agrees with him.
Late last week, Christie and Krauthammer were critical of Paul as he had drawn criticism from New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie for his libertarian position on many policy issues. (RELATED: Chris Christie goes after libertarians)
“It was an extremely important moment,” Krauthammer said of Christie’s criticism. “Rand Paul represents the sort of isolationist wing of the Republican Party. By this direct, fearless attack on him by Christie, I think he takes up the mantle of the majority of the GOP, which is interventionist. And that’s a really important moment.” (RELATED: Paul hits back at Christie)
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Murray, author of “American Exceptionalism: An Experiment in History (Values and Capitalism),” advised the GOP to take a libertarian-leaning stand on issues to achieve a common goal.
“My counsel is really simple,” Murray said. “It is that ‘We the Republicans,’ I want them to say, ‘We the Republicans are in favor of people being free to live their lives as they see fit; we’re in favor of enterprise where people can start business easily, where they are not hounded by these volumes of regulations; we want opportunity; and we are also against this collusive capitalism whereby the government and business sort of collaborate with each other, with sort of patting each other’s back. I want a Republican Party that is enthusiastically, aggressively in favor of liberty, opportunity and enterprise.”
Murray then explained how he had been impressed with Paul when he heard him speak and found that he was in agreement with the junior senator from Kentucky.
“I was actually around Rand Paul a few weeks ago and listened to him,” he continued. “I listened to him talk for about 20, 25 minutes and I said to myself, ‘You know, I can’t think of a single thing he has said that I don’t agree with.’ My views and Rand Paul’s are real, real close and much closer than my views are to Gov. Christie’s.”
Tantaros referenced Krauthammer’s remarks, to which Murray said this was one of the rare times he was in disagreement with Krauthammer.
“I had not followed what he’s been saying closely,” Murray said. “And so when I did hear him, it was in many ways the first time I had a first-hand encounter with his beliefs. I don’t think he’s fringe. You know actually what he was saying with social issues is almost exactly what I said. He was saying, ‘Look, those who are social conservatives and those who are libertarians or economic conservatives — we all want limited government. We all want the freedom to live our lives as we see fit. And so can’t we agree to disagree on some of the other stuff? No, I — Charles Krauthammer is a good friend of mine, and I also usually agree with him. On this particular issue, I disagree.”
