If Rand Paul takes his pre-debate message to the actual GOP debate Tuesday evening, viewers can expect loads of fireworks between him and fellow Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio.
On Tuesday afternoon in Las Vegas the Kentucky senator spoke to an intimate group of supporters about topics likely to dominate the final Republican prime-time debate of 2015, of which Paul unexpectedly made it into following a last-minute Fox News poll released Sunday morning.
“Anybody here want to trade your liberty for a false sense of security?” Paul asked the crowd, many of whom responded “No!” while others chanted “President Paul.”
The libertarian-leaning senator then listed off a litany of examples of government-led national security programs aimed at collecting Americans’ personal information.
“I keep trying to point out to Marco, if you were there in Washington doing your job, you’d know,” Paul said, seemingly referring to the ineffectiveness he claims exists in such programs.
He continued, “There is not a dime’s worth of difference between Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio… between Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush.”
“Most of the people on this stage are clamoring for new regimes in Syria, but what happens when you topple [President Bashar] Assad in syria? You’re going to get ISIS,” he added.
“They don’t get it,” Paul said, referring to his Republican rivals. “Tonight we will have debate about how we keep America safe. But there needs to be a legitimate debate and not just people beating their chests and saying, ‘Oh no, I’m stronger than you. I’ll spend a trillion dollars of money we don’t have.”
One of the most talked-about moments during the last debate was when Rubio slammed Paul’s dovish foreign policy.
“I know that Rand is a committed isolationist. I am not,” Rubio said. “I know the world is a safer and better place when America is the strongest military power in the world.”
Both senators will take the stage at 8:30 p.m. ET Tuesday evening, following an hour-long undercard debate. The program will air live on CNN.
