Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul accused President Obama of pulling a “bait and switch” on Americans by trying to refocus conversations about the recent terror attacks in San Bernardino, Calif., to gun control.
“From the very beginning, the president’s been trying to do a bait and switch on the American people. He wants to make this about his liberal agenda, which is gun control and not about terrorism,” the Republican presidential hopeful told Newsmax TV’s Ed Berliner in an interview set to air Monday evening at 9 p.m. ET.
Earlier Monday, Paul told CNN that President Obama has mistaken “the real problem,” which he claims is the heightened national security risk that comes with accepting refugees from war-torn, Muslim-majority countries, for gun violence in the United States.
The Kentucky senator also expressed frustration on Twitter Sunday evening during Obama’s address to the nation.
There are answers here to make our nation safe, but once again the President seems incapable of finding them.
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 7, 2015
The #Obamaspeech was an attempt to turn a necessary discussion on terrorism and national security into a ineffective gun control debate.
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 7, 2015
“If we want to know how we could’ve prevented this and how we can protect against future attacks, we need to look at who we’re letting into our country and what are the rules for gaining entry into our country,” Paul noted in a preview of the interview with Newsmax TV.
Last week, Paul introduced a bill that would place a temporary moratorium on refugees from the Middle East “until we can be more certain that the people who are coming here and the people who are already here are not here to attack us.” The “Stop Extremists Coming Under Refugee Entry Act,” would affect foreigners from 32 countries in addition to North Korea and the Palestinian territories.
According to Paul, the 19th century “New Colossus” sonnet — “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses…” — about welcoming immigrants to the U.S. no longer applies in this day and age. The poem has been engraved on a bronze plaque inside the Statue of Liberty since 1903.
“When that poem was written, people didn’t come to America to be put on welfare. All the refugees who come to our country are immediately enlisted and enrolled in welfare. They’re put on government housing, extended government check and given food stamps,” Paul said Monday.
He continued, “We got a lot of people in our country who are suffering without saying that we’re going to open up and bring all of the world’s refugees here… Look, my church has helped families to come to this country, but at the same time we can’t do it without having sufficient vetting to make sure that we’re not admitting people who wish us harm.”
The Kentucky senator, who holds the No. 8 spot in the Washington Examiner’s presidential power rankings, was fifth in a new poll of Iowa Republicans released Monday. He currently stands at 1.8 percent support among GOP voters nationwide in the latest RealClearPolitics polling average.
