Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., who won a special election to replace national security adviser Mike Waltz in Florida’s 6th Congressional District, ripped Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on Wednesday for working with Democrats on a Senate resolution designed to rein in President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs.
The Senate was poised Wednesday to vote on the resolution, which would end the national emergency Trump declared in an executive order to implement the tariffs on foreign imports. Paul and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who sponsored the resolution, used a special legislative procedure to force a vote.
The resolution prompted House Republicans to add a hurdle for lawmakers seeking to quickly take up resolutions related to Trump’s tariff authority, and the White House said Tuesday that Trump would veto the resolution if it reached his desk.
“If Rand Paul wants to get together with Bernie Sanders to fight Donald Trump, well, that’s on him,” Fine told “CNN News Central,” according to Newsweek. “I know that I’m here to fight Democrats, not to work with Democrats to undermine what President Trump is trying to do.
“The fact of the matter is, trade policy throughout the world has been unfair for decades. And I appreciate President Trump for standing up and fighting back. We’ve been waiting for this for decades. We finally have a president who will go and get the job done.”
The Senate on April 2 approved a similar but more limited resolution by a 51-48 vote that would only block tariffs on Canada. Four Republicans joined Democrats in voting for it: Sens. Paul and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky; Susan Collins of Maine; and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Collins and Murkowski have said they plan to support the latest resolution, leaving Paul one Republican vote short of seeing the measure passed should all 47 Democrats align with him.
Fine scoffed when asked whether the House should debate or vote on Paul’s resolution should it pass given that Republicans hold the majority in the lower chamber.
“No. Absolutely not,” he said. “Look, tariffs are apparently a great idea when other countries do them. But when President Trump wants to level the playing field by fighting back, everyone loses their courage. He’s trying to create a fundamental reordering in how we think about trade policy in the world. I’m behind him 100%, and this won’t go anywhere in the House.”
Paul told Newsmax on Tuesday “I’m not alone in having my doubts about” tariffs.
“If you look at the marketplace, $6.6 trillion was lost in two days because investors, self-interested, often very well-informed folks, all decided they were scared to death of these tariffs and what they might do to the economy, to the world’s economy,” Paul said.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
