Sen. Rand Paul (00:01):
I've just come from my office and it's kind of a great time of the year in the summer, my family comes up. My son and daughter-in-law and grandson are coming up because we were going to the White House picnic, but I've just been told that I've been uninvited from the picnic. I think I'm the first senator in the history of the United States to be uninvited to the White House picnic. The White House is owned by the taxpayers, we all are members of it. Every Democrat will be invited, every Republican will be invited, but I'll be the only one disallowed to come on the grounds of the White House.
(00:33)
I just find this incredibly petty. I mean, I have been, I think nothing but polite to the President. I have been a intellectual opponent, a public policy opponent. And he's chosen now to uninvite me from the picnic. And to say, my grandson can't come to the picnic.
(00:51)
Just the level of immaturity is beyond words. I've been here long enough that if anybody has ever followed me, I've been a critic of Obama, I've been in a critic of Biden. I've been in a critic of the previous Trump. But always in a, I think in a reasonable fashion, a long policy. And so they've decided they wanted to declare war on my family and exclude us from the White House. And I just think it's incredibly petty. And I hope someone will ask them some questions about how they've decided to sink to the steps.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
What was the explanation given to you?
Sen. Rand Paul (01:32):
No explanation, we're just not welcome. But you have to get a ticket, and we've always gotten tickets. I mean, I've been to 10 White House picnics. There's like Easter Egg Rolls, there's picnics, this is for Congress. And I think what's particularly galling about it is, I don't know if this came from the President on down, let's hope not. But if not, it's coming from his petty staffers who have been running a sort of a paid influencer campaign against me for two weeks on Twitter.
(01:59)
If you look at my Twitter, it's just gobs and gobs of these people. We know they're being paid because the White House, someone has told us that the White House called them from the White House and offered them money to attack me online. So we have that and now we're uninvited to the picnic. And it's like, I don't know, it's just incredibly petty. And it shows that, look, I'm arguing from a true belief and worry that our country is mired in debt and getting worse, and they choose to react by uninviting my grandson to the picnic. I don't know. I just think, it really makes me lose a lot of respect I once had for Donald Trump.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
You were already a no on the bill because of the debt limit increase that was included in it. But hypothetically, they could change that and get you to yes, does this make you less likely to get to you?
Sen. Rand Paul (02:47):
Well, when they tell you your grandson can't come to a picnic at the White House, that all Congress is allowed to come to, I don't know, it just so such a pettiness. But they've shown over the last week, they don't care about my vote at all. Because told them I can and would vote for the bill if the debt ceiling were taken off of it. So conceivably there might be some situation in which they needed my vote. Instead, they have decided to try to attack my character, they've misdirected people's sayings, "He's a Democrat, he's for open borders." And all this craziness online, because I think I'm having some effect with the argument on the debt. Having effect that we have a $2 trillion deficit this year. They like to blame it on Democrats. But guess what? The spending levels right now are Republican spending levels. If they vote to raise the debt ceiling $5 trillion, the debt will be the responsibility of Republicans.
(03:35)
And so how do they choose to respond? They're afraid of what I'm saying. So they think they're going to punish me, I can't go to the picnic as if somehow that's going to make me more conciliatory. So it's silly in a way, but it's also just really sad that this is what it's come to. But petty vindictiveness like this, I don't know. It makes you wonder about the quality of people you're dealing with.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
How much of your family was disinvited? How many people were supposed to come?
Sen. Rand Paul (04:02):
My son and daughter-in-law and my grandson are coming up on a flight and they would be here in the morning, and then we go there tomorrow afternoon. And my wife and I. We probably have been every year, President Obama didn't disinvite us, the Former President Trump didn't disinvite us, Biden didn't disinvite us. And we always did this. You'll hear people around town say, "Oh, I'm not going to the Christmas party because it's President Obama's White House." It's our White House. It's the Americans White House, we all pay for it. And we've always gone to the Christmas parties, whether it was a Republican or a Democrat. We've gone to the Egg Roll. We like the stuff. We like going to celebrate stuff in our nation's capital with our family.
(04:42)
And I don't know, it's just, I think a really sad day that this is the level of warfare they've stooped to, but it's also not very effective. It probably has the opposite result. It doesn't make me have a real warm, fuzzy feeling for the White House that they're telling my family can't come to the White House. So I don't know. I'm just disappointed more than anything.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
What'd it say about Trump's character, in your opinion?
Sen. Rand Paul (05:11):
From working over there, casually talking about getting rid of habeas corpus. Habeas corpus is when a tyrant throws someone in jail, they can plead to a lawyer who says, "Show me the body." You have to prove why someone's put in jail. It's one of the most fundamental rights we have. And the same people that are directing this campaign are the same people that casually would throw out parts of the constitution and suspend habeas corpus. So I think what it tells that they don't like hearing me say stuff like that. And so they want to quiet me down and it hasn't worked. And so they're going to try to attack me and they're going to try to destroy me in other ways and then do petty little things like social occasions or whatever. But it probably will not work. It probably will not make me cow down or bend to their will.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
You're talking about Stephen Miller?
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Do you think Stephen Miller uninvited you from the White House?
Sen. Rand Paul (06:06):
I don't know. I think that it's somebody [inaudible 00:06:11] if that's the truth, I'm a big boy and we can go have a picnic in another park. We can go to the mall. But it's just really kind of sad that this is where we are and that they think that this is somehow in their prerogative to sort of, I mean, literally every Democrat is invited, every Republican is invited. And to say that my family's no longer welcome, kind of sad, actually. My grandson has a "Make America Great" hat. My son and daughter-in-law, they like Donald Trump. I like Donald Trump. But when they want to act this way, it's where they begin to lose a lot of America who just wonders why does everything have to descend to this level? Why can't anything be more highbrow and more of a intellectual discussion where we have a disagreement, but it doesn't have to descend to this.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Do you think Stephen Miller should be working in the White House. Do you think Stephen Miller should be working in the White House?
Sen. Rand Paul (07:03):
I'm just going to leave it at that.
Speaker 5 (07:04):
How did they let you know about your disinvited?
Sen. Rand Paul (07:07):
Well, we're just tried to get our tickets and they said, "You're not invited."
Speaker 5 (07:07):
And how old is your grandson?
Sen. Rand Paul (07:11):
He's almost six months old.
Speaker 5 (07:13):
Okay. He is a little guy. Yeah.
Sen. Rand Paul (07:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:14):
But he has a-
Sen. Rand Paul (07:15):
Yeah, we may bring him tomorrow with his "Make America Great" hat.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
And can you, just to answer the other question about the character of, if not the President, the White House itself, do you see this as part of the campaign of retribution sort of-
Sen. Rand Paul (07:27):
There is a bigger campaign going on against Libertarians, people are writing about it. But really it's not Libertarians, it's people who choose to stand up to the President. And I've stood up to the President on the debt, but no differently than I stood up to Biden or to Obama. I've stood up to them on tariffs and they don't like it, and they don't want to have a reasonable argument or a discussion over the policy. They think they're going to somehow needle me or get me by disinviting my grandson to the picnic. But I think it's just really petty and juvenile, and I think they should be called out for it.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Thanks for your time.
Speaker 6 (08:03):
Thank you.
