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Rand Paul Smokes The Weekly Standard: ‘Good Riddance’

REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

Amber Athey Podcast Columnist
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Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul mocked the death of The Weekly Standard on Tuesday, calling the magazine a group of “fake conservatives.”

The Weekly Standard’s final issue was published Monday after more than two decades in business. The conservative never-Trump outlet was suffering from low readership and circulation and owners announced last week that the magazine would not survive into 2019. (RELATED: Spectator USA To Launch Magazine, Hopes To Fill Gap Left By Weekly Standard)

President Donald Trump took a victory lap amid the magazine’s demise, tweeting, “The pathetic and dishonest Weekly Standard, run by failed prognosticator Bill Kristol (who, like many others, never had a clue), is flat broke and out of business. Too bad. May it rest in peace!”

Sen. Paul joined the president in celebrating the death of The Weekly Standard.

“Good riddance to the fake conservatives and warmongers,” Paul tweeted.

The Weekly Standard founder Bill Kristol said during an MSNBC interview on Monday that he did not think Trump’s criticism of his magazine is “worth responding to.”

“I think [Trump] wants us to rest in peace, the spirit of The Weekly Standard to rest in peace,” Kristol said. “He wants people like me and Steve Hayes, and John McCormack, and Charlie Sykes to go away and stop trying to save conservatism and the Republican Party — and indeed America to some degree … We will not rest in peace.”

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