Kentucky Senator and Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul said that he was concerned fellow candidate Donald Trump would ” treat the country as sort of his little bully fiefdom” and criticized him for changing his mind on issues on Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “O’Reilly Factor.”
Rand said, “I got started in the Tea Party movement. There was this big rebellion in 2010, and it wasn’t so much rebellion against Democrats, it was actually rebellion against fake conservatives. It was a rebellion against Republican who grew the size of government, Republicans who doubled the debt, and also Republicans who voted for this bank bailout, to bail out Wall Street, and all this taxpayer money that was spent on the big banks. Conservatives were all opposed to that. And yet, Donald Trump was for that. He was for Obamacare before he was against it. He ‘s been for gun control before he’s against it. He says the Clintons are great with the economy, and Democrats are better with the economy. So, I just think we ought to be very careful and ought to know who we’re actually thinking about before people consider voting for him, because I really think he’s a fake conservative. I don’t think he’s consistently been anything in his life, other than a promoter of himself. So, people to have really listen to him, and decide what he really stands for.”
He added, “I think all the bravado and all the, ‘You’re stupid’ kind of language, it doesn’t really get us anywhere. But it also makes you think that imperiousness, that he’s just going to say, ‘Well, I’m Donald Trump, and therefore, it is so.’ And our government is built on sort of checks and balances that we have co-equal branches. And one of my concerns, and one the concerns of Tea Party, frankly, has been that the executive branch has grown too strong, and I say as I go around the country, we actually need to give power back to the legislature, and back to the people respectively. And my concern is that he would grab up that power, and really treat the country as sort of his little bully fiefdom. And I think that could be a real problem, particularly when we’re not sure…what is his philosophy. He said to the Wall Street Journal, he said, [paraphrasing] ‘I give politicians money so they’ll do what the hell I tell them to do.’ That kind of concerns me, because that’s what I don’t like about Washington, that politicians are bought and sold. You know, Hillary Clinton, many of us conservatives are upset with Hillary Clinton because she sells access, or appears to sell access. Well, my concern is also a businessman like Donald Trump buying access. Isn’t that equally despicable?”
Rand also argued, “I think eventually it’s going to wear thin. All this sort of false bravado, and all this bluster. I mean, aren’t people eventually going to say, ‘Does the emperor have any clothes or does the emperor have a brain?’ Frankly. People are going to finally say, ‘What is he really saying, when he says, [paraphrasing] ‘Well, I must be smart because I’m rich.’ ? Is that really a logical statement to make is, are we really going to accept that?’ So, I think we’re eventually going to look for something more significant, something more substantive. Let’s talk about whether we want government bigger or smaller. I want a smaller government, Donald Trump wants to raise taxes. Is that a conservative notion? Let’s have a real debate over whether we want government bigger or smaller. But, just calling people stupid, or calling them fat, or saying they’re bleeding, are just such ridiculous statements, that they shouldn’t even be countenanced.”
Rand conceded that people are “unhappy,” but that’s “not enough,” and that lots of people, including him are. And “it can’t just be empty bombast. And I’m afraid that’s what we’re getting is empty bombast, you’re ugly, you’re fat, you’re stupid. You know, that’s not really a debate. Let’s have a debate, do we want government bigger or smaller? Do we want higher taxes or lower taxes? Do we want more regulation or less regulation? And then ask, has this person been for this consistently, or are they brand new to this, and thinking some sort of reality star shtick is going to get them elected president? I’m one who certainly hopes not.”
Rand also blasted Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for use of a private server, wondering, “If she’s not wise enough to use a government server for security purposes, what kind of decision-making would she make as president? It also reminds me of the decision-making, or lack of decision-making with regard to Benghazi.” And “It also goes to a certain, I think, bit of lawlessness. In the sense that she knew the law, she chastised one of her ambassadors for not using the proper email server, and then she went to do it, and now she says, [paraphrasing], ‘Oh trust me. You can trust me to turn over the email, even though you couldn’t trust me to obey the law in the first place.”
Rand also said that the Clintons sold access, and that the Clinton’s finances, “should be investigated as really whether or not, she broke laws and whether or not Bill Clinton broke laws in accepting money.”
Rand concluded by talking about his spat with fellow candidate Chris Christie over the NSA, stating, “I think the Bill of Rights wins normally. And I try to be a great defender of the Bill of Rights. I don’t want President Obama collecting all of our records, and Governor Christie agrees the president. He would like to collect all Americans’ records without individualizing suspicion. That goes against the Fourth Amendment. And I’m happy, win or lose, to defend the Fourth Amendment, defend the Bill of Rights, and defend the right to privacy.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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