CNN "Erin Burnett Outfront" Transcript: Primary Elections

Interview

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BURNETT: OUTFRONT is Republican senator and presidential candidate, Rand Paul.

Senator, thank you very much for coming on the show. Look, there has been a lot of mixed reaction to what Nikki Haley had to say from within the Republican Party. Ann Coulter, for example, said, Donald Trump should deport Nikki Haley who, of course, is the child of immigrants. Marco Rubio, though, said she did a great job. Jeb Bush said she was positive and uplifting.

Do you agree with what Governor Haley had to say? I mean, what she said about angry voices was only part of the criticism for the Republican Party.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've been arguing for a couple years now we need a bigger party, that the Republican Party needs to be more diverse, more ethnically diverse, young, old, rich, poor, with earrings, without earrings, with tattoos, without tattoos. I want more people in the party.

But I think calling immigrants drug dealers and rapists and all this over the top bombast of Trump is going to destroy the Republican Party. I think it's a disaster. If I could change the channel, I'd change the channel. I'm tired of hearing about him.

The thing is that he isn't a person for whom we should be showing respect. He's a person for whom we should be showing disdain. He said during the debate, the last debate, he had no idea what the nuclear triad is.

Would we want someone to be in charge of our country that doesn't know what the nuclear triad is, that we could deliver missile by land, sea and air?

BURNETT: Do you respect that voters don't agree?

PAUL: No one has voted yet.

(CROSSTALK)

BURNETT: But in every poll, every poll --

PAUL: No, polls don't mean --

BURNETT: -- since last summer, Senator, they have said they like Donald Trump.

PAUL: A week after the last debate when he didn't realize what the nuclear triad is, his spokesman came out and said that our problem has been that we have not been willing enough to use the nuclear arsenal.

This is who we're talking about. We're talking about buffoonery writ large and no one has voted for him. He's never won any office. And I don't believe he's going to be our nominee, but he's destroying our party by making it --

(CROSSTALK)

PAUL: It begins -- people are look and saying how are you going to grow the party if we're describing immigrants as drug dealers and rapists.

BURNETT: Well, he, you know, you saw his op-ed, I don't know if you did see it in "USA Today", saying he's going to be bringing in new voters. And a lot of interest in him appears to be people who have not voted before. But the "A.P." is now reporting tonight that several top Republicans in party are prepared for a contested convention because there are people who feel like you do about Donald Trump, that if he's the nominee, that it could be contested.

Do you think that's likely? Would you support it? Is it better for the party to have a contested convention?

PAUL: Well, we won't know any of that until we had votes. We haven't had any states vote. We haven't had a caucus. We're three weeks away from the first voting.

So, I think we get premature, we jump ahead, and we're already talking about Trump this, Trump that. He has not won any election yet in his life. He's not won any nominating contest.

I think we're far from over. I think that there will be a spirited contest. It may last all the way to the convention, but I don't think it's right to sort of prejudge and sort of decide in advance how elections are going to turn out.

BURNETT: So, in terms of the election, I mean, obviously, you are -- you want to be right there in the top tier. You are right now not in the main debate tomorrow night.

PAUL: Depends on who you ask whether I should or shouldn't be.

BURNETT: Right. So, tomorrow night, FOX News says you're not on that main stage and you've said you will not be a part of the, quote/unquote, "undercard debate".

PAUL: But if you read "Politico", "Politico" added up all the polls and said they made a mistake, I should be in the poll. I meet their criteria.

So, my complaint is the criteria is arbitrary and capricious, but two, even meeting that arbitrary and capricious standard, we met it and yet we're still not in it. And so, I -- my question to the Republican Party is, do you want a bigger party or a smaller party when you exclude candidates who meet the criteria, I think that's a big mistake for the Republican Party.

We have a lot of close races. We have a lot of close Senate races that need the liberty movement in the party. The liberty movement can go a lot of different places. They don't always stay in the Republican Party.

It's a big deal and I've tried to keep the liberty movement engaged by giving them a candidate who agrees with them that carpet bombing the Middle East isn't a great idea, collecting all the phone records isn't a great idea, that we have to have a more reasonable foreign policy. Putting all the kids in jail for marijuana is not a good idea.

These are different ideas. I think they should have a place in the Republican Party and I'm disappointed frankly that the Republican Party is choosing to keep a candidate out who actually did meet the criteria.

BURNETT: All right. Well, Senator, thank you very much. We will see if that changes and we see you there tomorrow night. Thank you.

PAUL: Thank you.

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