Reuters/Washington
Republican presidential candidate Senator Rand Paul said yesterday Hillary Clinton’s time as secretary of state cast doubt on her qualifications to be president, taking aim at the Democratic favourite hours before her expected campaign announcement.
Clinton was expected to officially open her campaign later yesterday as her party’s prohibitive front runner in the 2016 election race.
Paul repeated both longstanding criticism of her handling of a 2012 attack on a US diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, and of recent questions about foreign contributions to a charity established by her and former President Bill Clinton.
“There is a history of the Clintons feeling they are above the law,” the Kentucky senator, who recently announced his presidential bid, told CNN’s State of the Union programme.
The Clinton Foundation’s acceptance of contributions from countries like Saudi Arabia “makes it difficult for her message to appear sincere,” Paul said.
“They said they were not going to take donations for the Clinton Foundation during the period of time she was secretary of state, and there are questions whether they did,” Paul said.
Referring to what some Republicans feel was an inadequate security response to threats against the Benghazi consulate, Paul questioned, “would she be there for the 3am phone call?” as commander-in-chief.
