He doesn’t want to upstage or divide the Republican Party.
No, really. That’s what Sen. Rand Paul suggests about the tea party response to President Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night. Dr. Rand should know. He is delivering it.
‘There’s a lot of energy that still comes from the tea party, and while they consider themselves mostly to be Republican, they occasionally will chastise even the Republican establishment. So they want an independent voice,” the Kentucky Republican advised CNN.
He’s not out to chastise the Republican establishment, and promises to “emphasize” certain points that Sen. Marco Rubio could overlook when he gives the official GOP response on Tuesday.
One topic is of particular interest to Dr. Paul.
“We shouldn’t send foreign aid or money to people who are burning our flag and chanting death to America,” he said. “So I think I do represent a wing of the Republican Party who doesn’t want to send good money after bad from Egypt, or to several of these countries. I would put strings on the money that goes to Pakistan. I would say to Pakistan, you don’t get more money until you release the doctor who helped us get bin Laden.”
The tea party agrees with him, Dr. Paul added.
And about his speech on Tuesday.
“I see it as an extra response, I don’t see it necessarily divisive. You know I won’t say anything on there that necessarily is like, ‘Marco Rubio is wrong’,” he said, telling CNN:
“None of the things I ran on as part of the tea party have been fixed. We’re still going down a hole as far as the debt crisis looming. And so we really have to still talk about spending and we want to make sure there is still a voice for that.”
