Rand Paul is rising slowly in the polls as the Iowa caucus approaches, and he gained enough support to return to the GOP debate and while there, targeted Donald Trump for skipping it.
Thursday morning before the debate, Paul gave his theory on why Trump isn’t showing up.
“I think he’s very much afraid of questions about his bankruptcies, maybe afraid about the fact that he’s never actually voted in a Republican presidential primary,” he told CNN. “For 70 years, he’s been a progressive Democrat. I was wondering if maybe he’s going to show up for the Democrat primary debate next time.”
In a way, Trump followed Paul’s lead. When he was demoted to the second-tier debate, Paul opted to skip it and host a town hall.
“The difference is is I was lobbying to be in the debate. I think there’s only really one main debate, and I thought we deserved to be in it. I was never lobbying to avoid questions from a tough questioner,” Paul said.
The strategy worked, and Paul returned to the main stage on Thursday. He has tried to rally his support by appealing to “liberty voters,” a group that Ted Cruz has also tried to court.
