Looks like Rand Paul headed for some friendly territory to respond to the GQ article that John told us about here.
Rand Paul's controversial and insane beliefs have now transmitted into his life experience as a new profile that was published by GQ reveals. Smoking weed in college is no big deal but when that's added to kidnapping and forcing a female student to worship an 'Aqua Buddha," you've now entered the twilight zone, not to mention physically abusing a woman.
Paul denied the kidnapping accusation but when it came to the "prank" of forcing the woman to worship the Aqua Buddha, his memory got a bit fuzzy. Think Progress has more where they were kind enough to transcribe part of the interview.
In his first national interview since the story came out, Paul went on Neil Cavuto’s Fox News show this afternoon, where he was questioned about the incident. Paul repeatedly denied “kidnapping” anyone (even though the GQ article never actually uses that word) and said he was “never involved with forcibly drugging people.” However, when Cavuto asked him about making someone bow down to Aqua Buddha, Paul became visibly uncomfortable and avoided answering the question:
CAVUTO: What do you make of this story? [...]
PAUL: No, I never was involved in kidnapping. No, I was never involved with forcibly drugging people. [...]
CAVUTO: So, they’re characterizing it as a kidnapping type of deal. It might have just been just playful fun? Is that what you’re saying? You might have had incidents like this, but it wasn’t deliberate kidnapping?
PAUL: Well, I — I think I would remember if I kidnapped something — kidnapped someone — and I don’t remember, and I absolutely deny kidnapping anyone ever.
CAVUTO: Apparently she said, they blindfolded me and made me bow down to Aqua Buddha. That might have been just a college prank, but you don’t even remember that, right?
PAUL: Well, I’m not really going to try to go back 27 years and remember everything that happened in college.
I was watching John King's show tonight and they had a Republican "strategist" on there and after they ran part of this clip he was literally horrified. He said Paul's campaign manager needs to put some duct tape on his mouth and shut him up. Paul also seemed to be wanting to distance himself from being labeled a Libertarian.
CAVUTO: While I have you here, everyone is a buzz about something you wrote and that concerned the Libertarian label that sticks with you that you say is not quite the case. You don't like to see yourself described as a Libertarian. What did you mean by that?
PAUL: Well the label I use is Constitutional conservative because I believe very strongly that government should be restrained by law and that we've gotten away from that, and that's a part of the mess, it's really a big part of the mess we're in now with this debt is that we don't obey the restraints. The Constitution enumerated certain powers. That's all the Federal government is supposed to be doing. Those not enumerated are left to the states and people.
Oh yeah, that's completely different from being a Libertarian. Thom Hartmann always describes Libertarians as Republicans who want to smoke pot. If Paul's college stories that were published in GQ are true, I'd say he fits the ticket.
UPDATE: Here's the entire transcript via LexisNexis.
CAVUTO: All right.
This is a good opportunity for me to raise this "GQ" story that`s come out on you, Rand. I just want you to respond one way or the other, the charges that a woman you went to school with at the time you were a student at Baylor, you and a buddy abducted her, blindfolded her, and had her then forcibly pay homage to an Aqua Buddha god.
I can go into a lot of the details. "GQ" doesn`t name her by name, but just says that she`s a...
PAUL: Oh, please spare us.
CAVUTO: I just want to be clear here -- that she`s a clinical psychologist today. She`s alive and very well today. They say they have the proof.
What do you make of that? What do you make of this story?
(LAUGHTER)
PAUL: What I say is, please spare us the details.
They also have pictures of me with an alien. They also are now saying that I could have been abducted by aliens at one point in my college career. So, I mean, this stuff is just outrageous and ridiculous. No, I never was involved with kidnapping. No, I was never involved with forcibly drugging people.
I mean, the thing is, is, do we live in an era where people can come forward anonymously and accuse of you things and then, all of a sudden, I`m supposed to spend the rest of the campaign defending myself against anonymous accusers who say I kidnapped them?
CAVUTO: So, you say the story is not true?
PAUL: I think that just borders on ridiculous.
Absolutely untrue.
CAVUTO: Not true.
PAUL: Absolutely...
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: So, what are you going to do to "GQ"? What are you going to do to "GQ"?
PAUL: Well, I think they deserve a lawsuit.
The problem is, is that, in our country, they make it almost impossible for politicians to win anything. Now, in England, it`s easier to win a libel suit. But to produce someone anonymously, and then I`m supposed to somehow respond to a anonymous person from 27 years ago who in the end says, whoever this person was, says we didn`t do any harm to them and it was all in fun, and we didn`t do anything wrong, and yet it`s being characterized as kidnapping, it`s kind of a craziness.
But the thing is, is we used to have journalistic ethics in our country, that you wouldn`t report something from one anonymous source, particularly accusing somebody of something like that. It`s so ridiculous, that I don`t know where to start.
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: I`m sorry, Rand, but I just want to be clear. So, they`re characterizing it as a kidnapping type of a deal. It might have been just playful fun? Is that what you`re saying? You might have had an incident like this, but it wasn`t deliberate kidnapping?
(CROSSTALK)
PAUL: I think -- I think I would remember something and I -- kidnapped someone -- and I don`t remember, and I absolutely deny kidnapping anyone ever.
CAVUTO: So, but it sounds like you`re not suing "GQ" over this.
PAUL: No, no, we have not ruled out the possibility on it, because the thing is, is that we now have 100 different media outlets, some who pretend to be real media outlets, saying I kidnapped someone.
CAVUTO: Yes.
PAUL: I don`t even think that`s the words of the woman. I think that`s the title that they put on the words where she said we didn`t do anything to her. And we don`t even know who she is.
So, it is kind of crazy.
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: Yes. Well, apparently, she said, they blindfolded me and made me bow down to Aqua Buddha.
Now, it might have been just a college prank, but you don`t even remember that, right?
PAUL: Well, I`m not going to really try to go back 27 years and remember everything that happened in college.
CAVUTO: Understood.
PAUL: But the thing is, is that I don`t think that really politicians should be asked to answer anonymous accusers from 27 years ago.
CAVUTO: OK.
PAUL: But I will categorically deny that I ever kidnapped anyone or forced anybody to use drugs.
CAVUTO: All right.
While I have you here, everyone abuzz about something you wrote and that concerns the libertarian label that you sticks with you that say is not quite the case. You don`t like to see yourself described as a libertarian.
What did you mean by that?
PAUL: Well, the label I use is constitutional conservative, because I believe very strongly that government should be restrained by law, and that we have gotten away from that. And that`s a part of the mess, or really a big part of the mess, we`re in now with this debt is that we don`t obey the restraints.
The Constitution enumerated certain powers, and that`s all the federal government is supposed to be doing. Those not enumerated are left to the states and people. And it`s still a big issue. This is not an old issue. This is a new issue.
Obamacare. Right now, you have the attorney general of Virginia and 13 other attorney generals saying, where do you get the constitutional authority for Obamacare? My opponent says, oh, well, the Constitution doesn`t say anywhere in it that you have a right not to have insurance.
He completely misunderstands the Constitution. If the right is not given to the government, it`s left to the states and people.
CAVUTO: All right.
PAUL: So, I think it`s a very present argument and something we need to keep discussing.
CAVUTO: Rand Paul, always good having you on. Thank you very much, sir.
PAUL: Good to be with you, Neil.
