Paul has faced challenges in resolving his libertarian, laissez-faire stance on foreign policy issues with the more hawkish bent the GOP has taken in the wake of terrorist attacks that have brought national security to the forefront of the GOP primary debate.
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Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is confident he will be on the primetime Republican debate stage Tuesday, but if he falls short, he will make an announcement this week about what comes next.
Paul is now confronting the possibility of being relegated to the undercard debate, commonly known as the “kiddie table”, for those presidential candidates polling below 4%. The cable network had tweaked its polling criteria to allow Fiorina to participate in the last debate after she offered up a strong performance on stage in October.
The Hill reported Friday that Paul faces a serious risk of missing the prime-time debate, depending on how his polling this weekend goes.
RealClearPolitics.com finds that Paul has a 4% threshold in Iowa.
Paul has dropped dramatically in the polls, which could be his undoing when CNN releases the stage lineup of candidates hitting at least the 3% mark.
“I have every expectation that I will be treated fairly”, he added. He said Paul’s quote referred to whether he would participate in a secondary debate on Tuesday if he didn’t qualify for the main-stage event.
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“The campaign is not asking for special treatment, but simply fairness in criteria, whether it be time frames, allowances for poll variances, or rounding, all of which have been applied to other debates”, the campaign said. “We have a first-tier campaign and we don’t plan on being labeled by the mainstream media anything less”. Fiorina protested, and CNN buckled, inviting any candidate who hit the top 10 in any national poll. That seems likely, giving New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie the reward of a spot on the main stage.
