Economics

Rand Paul: I Signed Cotton Letter to Help Obama ‘Negotiate from a Position of Strength’

He tries to convince realists that he didn't bail on them.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) campaigns for Georgia Senate candidate David Perdue (left) during a campaign stop at the McDonough Square on October 24, 2014 in McDonough, Georgia.

Photo by Jessica McGowan/Getty Images
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MANCHESTER, N.H.—During a town-hall meeting with employees of a cloud computing company, Kentucky senator and potential 2016 presidential candidate Rand Paul said he signed Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton's letter to Iran's leaders to help the Obama administration craft a better deal.

"We wrote laws putting sanctions on Iran," Paul said. "My goal in supporting those was to get them to the negotiating table. I don't want to push them away. I have not favored more sanctions during the negotiations–I want the negotiations to succeed."