Rand Paul: Hillary Clinton probably the nominee ‘if her health holds up’

Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, said former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will likely be the next Democratic presidential nominee if her health holds up — but also said that prospect isn’t entirely bad.

“If her health holds up, I think that she probably will be the nominee,” Mr. Paul, 52, said of Mrs. Clinton, 67, on Thursday on Sean Hannity’s radio show. “But I don’t think it’s all bad to consider that she would be the nominee, because I think what she considers to be her strength — foreign policy — is precisely her weakness.”

Mr. Paul said the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack on a U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, that claimed the lives of four Americans should preclude her from consideration “because really it’s the one thing that’s unique about being commander-in-chief is you have to defend the country and you have to defend American interests around the world, and I think by her failure there it showed just an extraordinary lack of judgment.”

The potential 2016 GOP presidential contender said he’s concerned about the recent news that she conducted her business as secretary of state exclusively via private email, but that he was also concerned about recent revelations that the Clinton Foundation accepted donations from foreign governments while she was serving as the country’s top diplomat.

“The Constitution actually explicitly forbids you as a senator or as a secretary of state from taking foreign gifts — it’s actually directly in the constitution,” Mr. Paul said. “Now, she’s probably going to maintain this was a foundation, but that means that she needs to now release where all the money is spent in the foundation. Did she take any plane flights paid for by the foundation? Did she have any hotel stays paid for by the foundation? Are any of her chauffeurs, limousines or mansions paid for out of her foundation?”

“All that’s gonna have to be public since she’s been taking foreign money to make sure that she can reassure us that she hasn’t broken the law,” he said.