Tuesday, during an interview with FNC host Jesse Watters, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who was a 2016 GOP presidential candidate, said he would advise Republican hopefuls to go on offense against former President Donald Trump at Wednesday night’s debate.
Paul told the “Jesse Watters Primetime” host that despite being advised not to, he went after Trump during his 2016 bid.
“Does Rand Paul have any advice for these politicians who are going to be facing off against each other tomorrow night?” Watters asked.
“You know, it’s funny,” Paul replied. “The same sort of strategy is coming up now. Do you attack Trump, or you don’t attack Trump? So when I was in the debate, there were 16 on the stage, and I was in the far periphery. And my staff said, whatever you do, don’t attack Trump. And so the very first question, what did I do? I attacked Trump. And mainly because if you’re sitting on the periphery of the stage, you don’t get as many questions, you don’t get as much time, and your only chance really is to jump in and go after the frontrunner.”
“So I go against all the logic that people say don’t attack the frontrunner because he’s popular,” he added. “Sure, he is popular. But there will be things you have to argue that you could do better than Trump, and if you can’t make that argument, you don’t have a chance. So, my advice is go after the frontrunner. It’ll be more interesting anyway.”
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