SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a leading proponent of criminal justice reform, refused to answer questions Friday about the Black Lives Matter movement despite its overwhelming involvement in current conversations about the intersection of race and the criminal justice system.
The Republican presidential hopeful flatly rejected a question from the Washington Examiner Friday about a recent Huffington Post headline that claimed he is open to participating in a “Black Lives Matter town hall.”
“Do you know if that’s what I said?” Paul interjected. “I know the headline said that, but I thought he asked me if I’d be interested in a forum about black issues.”
Indeed, Huffington Post got it wrong. NewsOne Now asked Paul recently if he thought the GOP field should participate in “a Republican forum that specifically speaks to issues of African Americans” without any mention of Black Lives Matter.
“If we were smart, we would do it,” Paul responded at the time.
While the Kentucky senator openly discussing Black Lives Matter at other points in the interview with NewsOne Now, going as far as to say “they are drawing attention to issues that need to be drawn to” at one point, he was far less forthcoming on Friday.
“I don’t know much about them,” the GOP hopeful told the Examiner when asked his opinion on some of the activists’ tactics.
“They’ve interrupted a bunch of speeches; that’s about it,” he added.
Paul continued, “I’ve never been on their website or read any literature from them. I’ve never seen one of them interviewed.”
“Do you know about them? Have you seen, have you read about them? Have you read the Black Lives Matter pamphlet?” he said, attempting to draw attention away from himself.
The libertarian firebrand went on, giving little opportunity to answer.
“Do you have anything else?” he said.
Paul, who’s been accused of being curt with members of the press, had asked another reporter the same question just minutes before speaking when the topic of poll numbers was brought up.
