DALLAS, Texas — Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton—a former U.S. Senator from New York, the former First Lady of the United States, and the Democrats’ likely frontrunner and nominee in 2016—is “yesterday’s news.”
Breitbart News asked Paul—flanked by the new addition to his campaign team, Texas GOP chairman Steve Munisteri—for his thoughts on Mitt Romney bowing out of the 2016 GOP presidential contest at the Friday evening press conference held at the Renaissance Hotel.
“I supported and campaigned for him when he won the nomination in the fall,” Paul said of Romney. “I think he’s a great man personally, a great businessman, I think he would have run this country a lot better than this president. But he didn’t get enough electoral votes. I think what it’s going to take is something reaching beyond. There’s nothing that I’m saying is wrong, but it’s just got to be that plus something if we’re going to win a big election. I wish him well, and he’s somebody who I met several times and I have a great deal of respect for him and his wife.”
Another reporter asked Paul if he’d like to receive Romney’s endorsement in the 2016 GOP primary, should he decide to run.
“Sure,” Paul responded. “But I’m guessing it would be difficult to get and he may not get involved until the primary sorts itself out. I could be wrong, but yeah, I’d want the endorsement of any prominent Republican.”
At that point, another reporter asked for Paul’s thoughts on what Romney leaving the race after originally flirting with it means for the 2016 field. That’s when he lit into Clinton.
“I think it indicates there’s going to be some new candidates—quite a few new candidates—when this thing shapes up,” Paul said. “And it may be a great deal of contrast sort of between today’s news and yesterday’s news. I think Hillary Clinton is, in some ways, a blast from the past, in the sense that I really think she represents policies that are outmoded and not really forward thinking.”
Paul is giving the keynote speech at the Dallas County GOP’s Reagan Day dinner late Friday night on a swing through Texas this weekend.