Rand Paul: Ted Cruz Can’t Get Anything Done Legislatively Because His Name Calling Goes Against The Decorum Of The Senate

2016 GOP presidential candidate Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) called into Kilmeade & Friends and talked about Senator Ted Cruz being rebuffed on the senate floor by Republicans who failed to allow him a roll call vote, John Boehner stepping down as Speaker of the House, why he feels it’s important to be present for votes on the senate floor, defunding Planned Parenthood, why he thinks Scott Walker dropped out of the race as well as news coming out of the UN on Syria and Russia.

Listen here:

Senator Ted Cruz being snubbed with not one Republican granting him the procedural courtesy of a roll call vote:

“Ted has chosen to make this really personal and chosen to call people dishonest in leadership and call them names which really goes against the decorum and also against the rules of the senate, and as a consequence he can’t get anything done legislatively. He is pretty much done for and stifled and it’s really because of personal relationships, or lack of personal relationships, and it is a problem. I approach things a little different, I am still just as hardcore in saying what we are doing is wrong , I just chose not to call people liars on the Senate floor and it’s just a matter of different perspectives on how best to get to the end result.”

Would you say Mitch McConnell has let you down?

“I think I would say we have disagreements on tactics on how to do it and I stand up forcefully for what I think is right but I try not to make it personal. So I will stand up, I stood up on the NSA, I stood up on Planned Parenthood, I forced a vote on Planned Parenthood in August, but I try not to make it personal and I think in not making it personal and understanding other people have different perspectives and really this is a democratic republic, you have to woo people, you can’t hit them over the head.”

John Boehner saying those who tried to shut down the government in 2013 were false prophets and how conservatives wanting to shut down the government over Obamacare never had a chance.

“I think he mistakes what can be done and what can’t be done. I am not saying we can get everything we want but I am saying don’t start by saying we are not going to get anything. People always talk about in foreign policy, negotiate from a position of strength; a position of strength would be we defund Obamacare, we defund hundreds of hundreds of regulations, we defund Planned Parenthood and we put it out there. Not just with Planned Parenthood being defunded but with hundreds and hundreds of offensive items that President Obama has put forth through executive action, we defund them all.”

Why is your attendance record so much better than Marco Rubio’s?

“I get paid by the taxpayers and I consider it an obligation to be here and to be doing my job so I try to make as many votes as humanly possible, I try to be part of the debate and you know, it’s my own personal perspective, I don’t think it’s right to miss the votes if at all possible.”

Why has it been tough for you to register in double digits in the polls?

“We have been up and down and still continue to do well when polled against Hillary Clinton. If you look at the independent vote we actually win the independent vote in 5 states won by President Obama so some of it depends on the polls but I think some of the polls are distorted by celebrity right now and you have seen wild gyrations so we consider this to be the beginning of the campaign, not the end…we have a lot of staying power so we will see what shakes out over time.”

Why do you think Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker had to get out of the race and how do you differ from Walker and other Republicans?

“I don’t think Governor Walker had a unique message. We have a unique message in that many of our interventions overseas, arming al Qaeda in Syria was a mistake, very few people have taken that position. I also think our government went too far collecting our phone records. People like Jeb Bush think that was one of President Obama’s finest moments, collecting phone records. There is a place for us not only in the party but in the debate and it’s a significant subset of the Republican party and maybe even a majority that think intervention hasn’t always been in our best interest.”

Rand talks about defunding Planned Parenthood and other wasteful government spending.

“I would defund not only Planned Parenthood but hundreds and hundreds of regulations, hundreds and hundreds of wasteful programs. I would take them all out, put them on the table and say ‘you know what Democrats, it doesn’t take 60 votes to defund something, it’s actually going to take 60 votes to fund any of these programs’, vote on them one at a time and we will see how many of these crazy programs get 60 votes, my guess would be very few but that would take the courage to let the spending expire and start anew and let new programs all require 60 votes to pass.”

What’s your message to the new Speaker of the House?

“I am not interested in continuing to spend money like crazy without reforming, I am not interested in borrowing a million dollars a minute and I wasn’t elected to preside and govern over the status quo. Its time somebody takes a stand…and we need to do something different than the Democrats, dramatically different. We need to challenge them and maybe it’s time for a rumble, maybe its time to stand up and struggle with the Democrats on what should be spent and what shouldn’t be spent by government.”