Rand Paul holds conference call with the sole purpose of talking smack about Donald Trump
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) promised earlier he would avoid commenting on his fellow Republican presidential candidates, but the gloves are now off when it comes to frontrunner Donald Trump.
"If no one stands up to a bully, a bully will just keep doing what they're doing," he said during a conference call with reporters. "I'm happy to do it." Business Insider reports the Paul campaign announced the call on Monday, and it was held specifically so Paul could speak out against Trump. "The truth telling is bluster," Paul said. "The truth telling is non-sequitur, self-aggrandizement, but is there really anything substantive coming out of saying that people are fat, people are stupid?" Paul also called his opponent a "fake conservative," and brought up issues that Trump has spoken in favor of, like single-payer healthcare and stricter gun control measures.
While Paul did not directly talk about Trump's recent comments that have been deemed sexist by both Democrats and Republicans, he did have a warning about his bombastic nature: "While some people are excited by fat jokes and stupid jokes, a lot of people in the general election — independents as well as women voters — are not that entertained by this. What we'll end up with is a reality TV star as a nominee if we’re not careful."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
Political cartoons for December 12Cartoons Friday's political cartoons include presidential piracy, emissions capping, and the Argentina bailout
-
The Week Unwrapped: what’s scuppering Bulgaria’s Euro dream?Podcast Plus has Syria changed, a year on from its revolution? And why are humans (mostly) monogamous?
-
Will there be peace before Christmas in Ukraine?Today's Big Question Discussions over the weekend could see a unified set of proposals from EU, UK and US to present to Moscow
-
Democrat files to impeach RFK Jr.Speed Read Rep. Haley Stevens filed articles of impeachment against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
-
$1M ‘Trump Gold Card’ goes live amid travel rule furorSpeed Read The new gold card visa offers an expedited path to citizenship in exchange for $1 million
-
US seizes oil tanker off VenezuelaSpeed Read The seizure was a significant escalation in the pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro
-
Judge orders release of Ghislaine Maxwell recordsSpeed Read The grand jury records from the 2019 prosecution of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein will be made public
-
Miami elects first Democratic mayor in 28 yearsSpeed Read Eileen Higgins, Miami’s first woman mayor, focused on affordability and Trump’s immigration crackdown in her campaign
-
Ex-FBI agents sue Patel over protest firingspeed read The former FBI agents were fired for kneeling during a 2020 racial justice protest for ‘apolitical tactical reasons’
-
Trump unveils $12B bailout for tariff-hit farmersSpeed Read The president continues to insist that his tariff policy is working
-
Trump’s Comey case dealt new setbackspeed read A federal judge ruled that key evidence could not be used in an effort to reindict former FBI Director James Comey
