Rand Paul thinks 'arbitrary' criteria kept him out of the last debate because the media is 'becoming God'

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) isn't thrilled that he missed out on the last presidential debate. Mind you, he could have debated with the undercard candidates, but he chose to skip out entirely. He hasn't said if he plans to skip the undercard again, should his polling numbers fail to qualify him for the main stage for Thursday's Fox News debate in Iowa.

Paul told Fox Business on Monday that he feels confident he'll fare better this time around "if Fox counts the polls appropriately."

"It's arbitrary — look, you guys just decide out of the blue which polls you're going to use, you don't announce which polls you're going to use, and then you don't understand what margin of error is — look at the recent poll — it's plus or minus 5," Paul said. "So someone who's at 5 percent is no different than someone who's at 10 percent if the margin of error's 5. So you're using polls in an unscientific way."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up

The senator then took his argument one step further, saying the media's debate criteria doesn't just hurt candidates, "it's also a disservice to the voters because you are becoming God."

Watch Paul's full interview here.