Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told Breitbart News he will honor his pledge to support the presumptive 2016 GOP presidential nominee, Donald Trump, in the general election against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton—the likely Democratic nominee—in November.
Paul, along with every other 2016 GOP presidential candidate, signed a pledge that they would back the nominee in the general election.
“I took a pledge when I ran for president to not run as an independent candidate and to support the Republican nominee,” Paul said. “I stand by that pledge, and I think that anybody who signs their word to a document ought to take it seriously before they sign a document. So I don’t think there’s any question that those who signed the document ought to say, ‘you know what? I honor the pledge.’”
Several others, like Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Dr. Ben Carson and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, have followed through on their pledges to support Trump as the nominee. Others, like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), have yet to do so. Now that Trump has won and he has lost, Bush has said he does not intend to back Trump over Clinton.
Bush even went so far as to state he would not vote for Trump over Clinton.
“In November, I will not vote for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, but I will support principled conservatives at the state and federal levels, just as I have done my entire life,” Bush said in a Facebook post when Trump became the presumptive GOP nominee. “For Republicans, there is no greater priority than ensuring we keep control of both chambers of Congress. I look forward to working hard for great conservatives in the Senate and House in the coming months.”
That means Bush has broken his pledge to the Republican Party, while others like Cruz have yet to fulfill it or break it.
More from Paul’s latest exclusive interview with Breitbart News is forthcoming.