Sen. Rand Paul joked that he wasn’t hard enough on Donald Trump in the last GOP debate, signaling he may hit even harder against the billionaire at the second debate Wednesday.
“I think I was a little too easy on Donald Trump last time,” Paul told Politico in an interview Saturday. “That’s given in jest. And I think that it’s hard to say in advance exactly what will happen because you are somewhat bound to the questions that you’re going to answer them. And I plan on answering them.”
The comments from Paul, who is number 10 in the Washington Examiner‘s presidential power rankings, were somewhat tongue-in-check, because he aggressively confronted Trump in the first presidential debate last month. But the Kentucky senator jabbed Trump repeatedly in his interview with Politico, saying the GOP front-runner’s discourse is “that of junior high.”
“You have a long-term governor from a large conservative state leaving the field, and meanwhile, the media continues to reinforce a celebrity that really doesn’t have qualifications for office and in fact would alarm me if he were in charge of our nuclear weapons,” Paul said, in a reference to former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who left the race Friday. “So, really, I think it’s a serious versus the unserious.”
Paul and Trump will face each other next week at the Reagan Library, with the nine other top Republican contenders. As one of the candidates struggling to rise out of the low single digits in polls, Paul’s underdog position makes him more likely to go on the offensive against Trump than for Trump to attack Paul.
Last month, Paul put his odds of winning the nomination at one in 10. But he sought on Saturday to appear more confident in his candidacy, telling Politico that “once the silliness lets off of celebrity,” his polling numbers may start to look better.
