Apparently President Donald Trump isn’t the only one who really likes using Twitter to jab at his political opponents. This past week, Republican members of Congress including Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney started incessantly going at each other with outlandish insults hurled via the platform after Paul expressed public support for the idea that Cheney was out of line with her idea that the United States should stay in Afghanistan. Just recently, again sparking this discussion, peace talks between the U.S. and the Taliban about the war in Afghanistan fell apart.
At one high point of the spat Paul and Cheney engaged in more recently, the Congresswoman insisted the Kentucky Senator was a “big loser” and — quoting Trump himself — a “spoiled brat without a properly functioning brain.” Why are we supposed to trust these people to take their roles seriously enough to actually deliver competent governance again?
Retweeting a post in which Trump made that comment and adding her own, Cheney wrote on Thursday:
‘Hi @RandPaul I know the 2016 race was painful for you since you were such a big loser (then & now) with a dismal 4.5% in Iowa. No surprise since your motto seems to be “Terrorists First, America Second.” Here’s a TBT courtesy of @realDonaldTrump. No truer words were ever spoken’
Just earlier that day, Paul had posted to the same platform:
‘Hi @Liz_Cheney, President @realDonaldTrump hears all your NeverTrump warmongering. We all see your pro-Bolton blather. I’m just grateful for a president who, unlike you, supports stopping these endless wars.’
John Bolton was Trump’s national security adviser until just recently. He departed in fierce contention with the president over his intent to get the United States out of Afghanistan. To that end, Trump went so far that he’d been planning on hosting the Taliban at Camp David for the latest round of peace talks last weekend, shortly before the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. That meeting was cancelled after the Taliban claimed responsibility for a bombing attack that claimed the life of an American soldier — but it wasn’t cancelled before American political interests could divide into those aghast at Trump’s plan and those intent on ending the Afghanistan conflict in the near future.
In a widely circulated op-ed piece, Wyoming state legislators had insisted that Cheney should stop “publicly criticizing our Republican commander-in-chief and seemingly pushing the U.S. toward yet another endless war in the Middle East,” and in recent days the notably already anti-war Paul expressed support for this idea, writing on Twitter:
‘I agree! Why do some neocons continue to advocate for endless wars? I stand with @realdonaldtrump on ending wars. Let’s focus on America First, not Afghanistan!’
The idea, of course, is that one of those “neocons” was Cheney. She’s the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, who served when the United States first made their entry into the country what’s approaching two decades ago. Leading Democrats have, for their part, promised to get the U.S. out of Afghanistan if they reclaim the White House in 2020.
Check out Twitter replies…
Featured Image via screenshot
