DC: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said critics of President Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladmir Putin in Helsinki, Finland have “Trump derangement syndrome” Monday on CNN.

“Let me get right to the questioning. Do you believe that President Trump’s meeting with Putin made America safer?” asked CNN host Wolf Blitzer.

“You know, I think engagement with our adversaries, conversation with our adversaries is a good idea. Even in the height of the cold War, maybe at the lowest ebb when we were in the midst of the Cuban missile crisis, I think it was a good thing that Kennedy had a direct line to Khrushchev. I think it was a good thing that we continued to have ambassadors to Russia even when we really objected greatly to what was going on, even during Stalin’s regime. So I think that it is a good idea to have engagement,” Paul said.

“And I think that what is lost in this is that I think there’s a bit of Trump derangement syndrome. I think there are people that hate the president so much that this could have easily been President Obama early in the first administration setting the reset button and trying to have better relations with Russia and I think it’s lost on people that they are a nuclear power,” Paul continued.

The Kentucky senator added, “They have influence in Syria. They’re in close proximity to our troops in Syria. They are close to the peninsula of North Korea and may have some influence that could help us there. The other thing that’s lost and people forget this completely, the Russians tried to help us stop the Boston marathon bombing. We actually did help them stop a terrorist attack in St. Petersburg because we were communicating and exchanging information.”

Paul went on to say that “all of those things are good, and because people hate Trump so much, all of that’s being lost.” Watch