Rand Paul will not participate in Fox Business Network’s undercard debate Thursday evening. Instead, the Republican presidential candidate hopes to draw viewers to an online town hall that will air simultaneously.
The Kentucky senator has spent most of this week capitalizing off his decision to skip the 6 o’clock forum for low-polling candidates. He drank bourbon and took jabs at his Republican rivals on the “Daily Show” Wednesday night, following an early-morning segment on “The Dr. Oz Show,” and did more than a half-dozen TV and radio interviews Thursday hours before the debate.
Now, Paul is gearing up to compete with Thursday’s primetime event, joining liberal talk radio host Alan Colmes at 8 p.m. ET and hosting his web-based forum at 9 p.m.
“The revolution will not be televised,” Paul tweeted Thursday, advertising his last-minute town hall. “Turn off your TV, watch the real discussion.”
According to CNN, the libertarian-leaning senator has already drawn a combined total of more than 7 million viewers to the TV appearances he’s done so far this week. Each of the interviews focused, in part, on Paul’s refusal to attend the undercard debate.
In comparison, FBN’s last happy hour debate, which aired live in mid-November, drew around 4.7 million viewers.
“I have an important voice,” Paul, who’s eighth in the Washington Examiner’s presidential power rankings, told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota Thursday.
He continued, “What do you think the liberty movement, the liberty voters in the Republican Party, are thinking now? That the Republican Party in league with the media networks is saying we’re not going to let the liberty candidate on the stage.”
