Posted on 08/24/2015 4:51:20 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Republican presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said he stands by his outspoken criticism of fellow candidate and reality show star Donald Trump because he is worried about the country succumbing to an obsession with celebrity over substance.
"My fear ... is that there are countries that do succumb to celebrity... often in the developing world, celebrities and very wealthy people will win," said Paul during a 22-minute pre-taped interview posted on the web site of NBC's "Meet the Press." "I worry about the country because I don't believe that there's any sincerity to what [Trump's] message is."
"And even when the message is sincere, it's so garbled that now, here we have this great opponent of immigration [in Donald Trump] who's going to ship everybody home, but then he says things like 'oh yeah, but then I'm going to let them all back in,'" said Paul.
"For two months the Trump mania has been soaking up votes from many of the candidates," said Paul, who explained that Trump's appeal taps into anger at Washington.
"You can disapprove and simply have anger at Washington," said Paul. "He's tapping into the anger. But I think his message is empty anger. It's an anger without substance. Whereas I think people are rightly angry at government and angry at big government and debt. And really frankly, the biggest anger I feel ... was anger at Republicans who promised to make government smaller and then it didn't become smaller, it actually became bigger."
"So I mean the real question is, are conservatives comfortable enough to say ... Donald Trump's been against Obamacare long enough that he's not going to expand it, or will you start [to] have a suspicion that he still kind of sounds like he's for single-payer," said Paul. "I think we could be well on our way to single-payer if we elect Donald Trump."
Democrats "are applauding" Trump's front-runner status, Paul said, because polls show that Trump would do worst in a head-to-head match-up with Democrat front-runner Hillary Clinton. Some polls show Paul performing best in swing states against Clinton, he said.
Paul said he truly believes that Trump is a "fake conservative" and that he will not walk back criticism of the current Republican front-runner "because he has been on every side of every issue in the last five years."
"We have to decide whether we want sort of empty platitudes or whether we are going to look at substance," said Paul.
Arguing that voters should look at more than just anger, Paul said: "I've put forward a flat tax, I've put forward a plan to balance the budget in five years, and I've been part of an intellectual movement that's been around really since World War II, that has been fighting against large government that is all consuming and all involved in our lives."
The interview was pre-taped from Haiti where Paul, an ophthalmologist, was doing charity eye surgery.
Ha!
What substance does Paul have? He’s so unconvinced of his own presidential run that he is running for his senate seat, too.
That looks more like a politician wanting to keep his government paycheck & benefits than a man committed to the (empty) substance of his TWO campaigns.
You might as well quit now Rand as we all see you are nothing but another self-serving politician.
F*** you very much,
Chris.
LOL!
<3 <3 :D
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