Paul says he’s tired of being GOP’s ‘whipping boy’
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he was tired of always being the Republican Party’s “whipping boy” and of his colleagues wanting him “to do their job for them.”
In a Friday episode of Politico’s “The Conversation with Dasha Burns,” the Republican senator said his colleagues have asked him to tell President Trump that they won’t push forward a presidential nominee, seemingly in reference to Paul Ingrassia, Trump’s former nominee for the Office of Special Counsel.
“They say, ‘Oh, well, you’re not afraid of the president. You go tell him his nominee can’t make it,’” Paul told journalist Dasha Burns. “So, I’m just tired of always being the whipping boy. I’m tired of [being] the only one that has any guts to stand up and tell the president the truth.”
“So these Republicans, they need to man up and they need to say, ‘We’re going to vote no because of this reason,’” he continued. “And they need to tell the president. But so far, what I’m hearing is rumbling and griping and wanting me to do their job for them.”
Ingrassia withdrew from consideration to lead the Office of Special Counsel after Politico reported he wrote in text messages that he had a “Nazi streak” and said the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, should be “tossed … into hell where it belongs.”
“I appreciate the overwhelming support that I have received throughout this process,” Ingrassia posted on Truth Social when announcing his withdrawal, noting he was doing so because he did not “have enough Republican votes at this time.”
Paul’s interview took place shortly after he discovered he was not invited to a White House lunch hosted by Trump for Republican Senators. In June, he also said he was “uninvited” from a White House picnic.
“Everybody showed up … we’re just missing one person, you’ll never guess who that is,” Trump said at the Tuesday lunch, referring to Paul. “He automatically votes ‘no’ on everything, he thinks it’s good politics, it’s really not good politics. He’s an automatic ‘no.’”
While Paul said he supports Trump, adding that he would choose the president “over and over again” in the most recent elections against former President Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris, he said he wasn’t going to “sit back and just say, ‘Oh, I’m leaving all my beliefs at the doorstep.’”
“I’m worried about the demise of the conservative voice within the Republican Party if we all become rubber stamps,” he said. “So I’m kind of happy to be the skunk at the party.”