Rand Paul: I Won’t Do an Undercard Debate

Rand Paul will not accept being relegated to an undercard debate and is willing to protest, the Republican presidential candidate said Wednesday.

“I won’t participate in any kind of second-tier debate,” Paul declared in a radio interview with Fox News host Brian Kilmeade.

Paul talked up his campaign, touting the size of his operation in Iowa and the millions of dollars he’s raised. “Doesn’t mean I’m gonna win, but I think without question we have a first-tier campaign and we just can’t accept the designation of being artificially told that we don’t have a chance with three weeks to go,” he said, alleging that downgrading a candidate to a secondary debate at this point would “destroy the campaign.” “So we won’t stand for it and we will protest any such designation.”

The Kentucky senator was responding to the news that only six candidates are likely to make Fox Business Network’s main debate stage in South Carolina on Jan. 14. According to the debate criteria and current poll numbers — the main debate will feature the top six candidates based on national polling, and the top five based on an average of Iowa and New Hampshire polls — Paul, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina could be relegated to the happy hour debate . . .

Paul maintained he could make the big stage. He’s just 0.3 points below the criteria, he said, and it would be illogical to exclude someone who’s within the margin of error. “But, frankly, if we beat Chris Christie by 0.3 and he’s excluded, as much as I disagree with him politically I think that’s a mistake,” Paul said. “The same way with Fiorina. There’s no reason why people should be told that they have no chance with three weeks to go.” (Read more from “Rand Paul: I Won’t Do an Undercard Debate” HERE)

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