Rand Paul rejects label of ‘Trump’s most loyal stooge’

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Thursday rejected the idea that he is President Trump’s “most loyal stooge,” after being labeled as such in a New York Magazine article.

“The haters are gonna hate. What are you gonna do?” Paul responded in an interview on “Fox and Friends.”

“The evidence is quite to the contrary. I am probably one of the most independent senators on the Hill,” he said.

In an article published Wednesday, New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait accused Paul of being more than just “attached” to the Republican president.

{mosads}”The junior senator from Kentucky, and onetime hope of the extremely short-lived ‘libertarian moment’ in American politics, has not only attached himself to Trump, but is actively snuffing out whatever faint stirrings of opposition his colleagues can muster,” Chait wrote.

Chait slammed Paul for not joining other GOP lawmakers who have come out in support of an investigation into Trump’s “opaque ties to Russia.”

The article noted Paul’s comments in an interview earlier this month, when the GOP senator remarked, “I just don’t think it’s useful to be doing investigation after investigation, particularly of your own party.”

Paul maintained Thursday that he remains one of the most independent lawmakers in the upper chamber.

“If I like what the president is doing — and I think a lot of what he’s doing is good — I’m happy to support it. I’m not embarrassed to support conservative policies,” Paul said.

“I was the only Republican that voted against a budget that would have added $9 trillion in new debt, so I’m hardly someone who’s afraid to tout the party line,” he said.