Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said he welcomes Donald Trump’s absence from Thursday’s GOP presidential debate stage.
Paul argued that Trump’s decision to skip the debate — which Paul did at the last debate — would raise the “respectability” of the prime-time showdown on Fox News.
“What he’s [Trump] said about the moderator in question is inappropriate behavior and he should be shunned for it,” Paul told CNN. “I think that he has brought the debate, the presidential debate, the tenor of the debate to a historic low and so, yeah, I think it’s fine if he misses because it does bring up the respectability of the debate when you don’t have a guy that’s talking about things that really are inappropriate even in mixed company.”
Paul also said he believes his campaign is poised to shock the political world in Iowa, but would not specify where he needs to finish in the first two nominating states in order for his campaign to survive. The Kentucky senator said his “secret weapon” for Monday’s caucus is the youth vote and added that he believes liberty-minded voters — who chose his father, former Congressman Ron Paul, in 2012 — have been underrepresented in Iowa polling.
Paul ranks seventh in the Washington Examiner‘s newest GOP president power rankings.
