Rand Paul was anything but nasty about Donald Trump referring to him as “a nasty little guy.”
The Kentucky senator was asked Sunday by “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker about Trump’s descriptor, to which he answered, “So he gets mad at me sometimes, but I’m still one of his best supporters if he’s willing to have it.”
Welker asked Paul in full, “I do want to ask you about some comments that President Trump actually made about you. This was a post on Friday night. Let me read you, get your reactions on the other side. He said, quote, ‘Whatever happened to Senator Rand Paul? He was never great, but he went really bad. I got him elected twice in the great commonwealth of Kentucky, but he just never votes positively for the Republican Party. He’s a nasty little guy.’ Why do you think President Trump is targeting you, Senator?”
Paul answered, “I think the problem is this, is that in Washington what I represent some people describe as unusual and the president describes it as weird that I’m for less debt and balanced budget. But when I come home to Kentucky or when I travel the United States, people come up to me and say, ‘Stick to your guns. You’re the only voice up there, Republican or Democrat, who’s still talking about the debt and still talking about balanced budgets.’”
“But I don’t take it too seriously. Look, I’ve known the president for over a decade. I’ve played golf with him many, many times. I enjoy his company. I was one of his biggest defenders on impeachment and would do so again,” Paul continued.
“I think he’s one of the best presidents, if not the best president of my lifetime. But it doesn’t mean I will sit quietly and say, ‘Oh well, whatever you want to do.’ I was elected to have a voice, and so I continue to be a voice, like on the bombing of the Venezuelan boats. I think that’s inappropriate. War with Venezuela without Congress’s opinion or Congress’s weighing in and authorization is inappropriate. The tariffs are bad for the economy. But it doesn’t mean I dislike Donald Trump. So he gets mad at me sometimes, but I’m still one of he’s best supporters if he’s willing to have it.”
Watch the interview with Paul in the video above.
