Rand Paul holds conference call with the sole purpose of talking smack about Donald Trump

Sen. Rand Paul.
(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

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."

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Catherine Garcia

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.