The first debate of the new year will be Thursday night in SC.
Advertisement
Rand Paul will be holding an online town hall event while his Republican presidential rivals debate the issues Thursday night in Charleston, South Carolina. With less than three weeks to go before the February 1 leadoff Iowa caucuses, there are still a dozen major Republican candidates in the race.
Paul’s camp argued, while the results weren’t released until Jan.13, the poll was conducted before the network’s January 11 deadline. To qualify, candidates had to be in the top six of an average of the five most recent national polls, or five recent polls from Iowa or New Hampshire.
Those candidates who did not make Fox’s cut for the main event qualified for the earlier, 6 p.m. ET debate, which might be likened to a “warm-up act” before the headliner performance.
Asked if pulling out of the debate would appear to be sour grapes, Paul said it is a “mistake to let the media or the party pre-decide who has a chance and who doesn’t have a chance”.
Anchor/Managing Editor of Fox Business News Neil Cavuto and Anchor/Global Markets Editor Maria Bartiromo will moderate the prime-time debate; anchors Trish Regan and Sandra Smith will moderate the first debate.
A recent average of national polls gives Paul about 3.8% of support among Republican primary voters, RealClearPolitics reported.
Paul publicly lobbied CNN in December to allow room for him on the main stage during its latest GOP debate, for which he narrowly qualified. “I’m the one voice saying the government shouldn’t be collecting all your records, and I’m the one voice saying we shouldn’t lock up every kid for marijuana”.
Paul, who has also been pleading his case on social media, has said he would not attend the so-called undercard debate for lower polling candidates. Earlier Thursday he spoke about his predicament on “New Day” with CNN’s Alisyn Camerota.
“I’ve said we need to be a party that has, you know, [people] with earrings, without earrings, with tattoos, without tattoos, black, white, brown, rich [and] poor”, Paul said.
Advertisement
“We think they’ll be lacking in diversity tonight, and whether people quibble over a bunch of nonsense that one man in particular from NY has to say, so be it”.
