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Paul: I'm confident I'll make the next main debate stage

By Nick Gass

Rand Paul expressed confidence on Wednesday that he would make the cut for the main stage of the next Republican presidential debate on Jan. 14, calling attention to recent national polling that he hoped would put him over the top.

In a Dec. 23 radio interview with Fox News host Brian Kilmeade, Paul said that he would not participate in an undercard debate after POLITICO and others reported that only six candidates would likely qualify for the main stage at the Fox Business event in North Charleston, South Carolina.

A week later, Paul struck a more optimistic note on "Fox and Friends" following the release of a CNN/ORC national poll that showed him with 4 percent of the vote, but again reiterated that it sends a bad message to the public "that basically the media gets to choose who the candidates are who’ll be considered."

“The good news is, it looks like we’re actually making the criteria. There was a national poll out this week that had me in fifth place, only one point out of fourth place," he said, remarking that he is "concerned about fairness."

Candidates like Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, John Kasich and Carly Fiorina should not be excluded, Paul continued, adding, "I don’t think it’s fair to have an artificial distinction."

The Kentucky senator barely made the last primetime debate stage, but managed to make the cut despite technically not having the right polling numbers.

Paul also asserted on Wednesday that his campaign would outperform expectations in Iowa.

"We have a good ground game there, and we think we’re going to do a lot better than the polls indicate," he said. "We have a lot of young people, college students, we have a lot of independents. A lot of people aren’t showing up in polls, so we think we’re going to outperform polls, and we’re in it to win it. We actually do believe and wouldn’t be doing this unless we thought we could win."

In commenting on The Wall Street Journal's report that the National Security Agency's spying programs scooped up communications between members of Congress and congressional leaders, Paul said he was "appalled," calling it "exactly why we need more NSA reform."