No undercard

Rand Paul: I won't do an undercard debate

The Kentucky senator risks not making the cut for the primetime stage at next month's debate

By Nolan D. McCaskill

Rand Paul will not accept being relegated to an undercard debate and is willing to protest, the Republican presidential candidate said Wednesday.

“I won’t participate in any kind of second-tier debate,” Paul declared in a radio interview with Fox News host Brian Kilmeade.

Paul talked up his campaign, touting the size of his operation in Iowa and the millions of dollars he’s raised. “Doesn’t mean I’m gonna win, but I think without question we have a first-tier campaign and we just can’t accept the designation of being artificially told that we don’t have a chance with three weeks to go,” he said, alleging that downgrading a candidate to a secondary debate at this point would “destroy the campaign.” “So we won’t stand for it and we will protest any such designation.”

The Kentucky senator was responding to the news that only six candidates are likely to make Fox Business Network’s main debate stage in South Carolina on Jan. 14. According to the debate criteria and current poll numbers — the main debate will feature the top six candidates based on national polling, and the top five based on an average of Iowa and New Hampshire polls — Paul, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina could be relegated to the happy hour debate.

“It’s the kids’ table, and at that table you’re not considered to be a competitor, not considered to be having a chance,” Paul said.

Paul maintained he could make the big stage. He's just 0.3 points below the criteria, he said, and it would be illogical to exclude someone who's within the margin of error. “But, frankly, if we beat Chris Christie by 0.3 and he’s excluded, as much as I disagree with him politically I think that’s a mistake,” Paul said. “The same way with Fiorina. There’s no reason why people should be told that they have no chance with three weeks to go.”

He made the case for having all nine candidates who participated in CNN’s debate last week on the main stage come January. Paul, however, was a late addition to the prime-time event earlier this month, just making the cut after the network tweaked its criteria.

“I think eight or nine on a stage is not too many to have a substantive debate,” he argued. “I mean, if you get rid of some of the silliness with Donald Trump you’d have a chance to get some more substantive debate also.”

Paul, who polls sixth at 4 percent in the latest CNN/ORC poll released Wednesday, dismissed the accuracy of polls. He slammed the media for relying so heavily on something unscientific and suggested Americans who are unlikely to vote in a primary are included in the surveys. He highlighted the fall of retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and the recent rise of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz as examples of how “wildly inaccurate” polls are. Cruz has essentially replaced Carson as Trump's primary competition. In the latest national poll, Carson sits alongside Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in third place at 10 percent. Cruz is at 18 percent, behind Trump at 39 percent.

“There’s no evidence that the polling’s very accurate so if we’re gonna make our decisions based on polling why have elections?” he questioned. “You know, we can have ‘American Idol’ contests instead. I think it’s a huge mistake to allow that to happen.”

Paul blasted the system of allowing the media and artificial polls to determine who belongs on the main stage and also took a shot at Trump, who appeared to be oblivious to a question posed in the last debate about the nuclear triad. “People are gonna make time for Donald Trump to be at the center of the stage and he doesn’t know what the nuclear triad is,” Paul fired. “His spokesman came out this week and said: ‘We’ve got it. We need to show people that we’re unafraid to use the nuclear arsenal.’”

“I mean, we have elevated someone who is completely an unserious candidate who should scare us to death, and he might actually win,” he continued. “And you’re going to exclude from the stage people who are serious, who have serious ideas about the country? So really it’s shame on the media if that’s what happens.”

The Republican National Committee and host networks should look at a combination of polling, fundraising and organizational strength when determining who makes it to the big stage, he said. Paul pointed to Jeb Bush as an example, while noting that he’s bested the former Florida governor in a couple of the latest national polls. “Are people gonna exclude Jeb Bush from the stage, who’s raised $100 million,” he asked. “That would be crazy.”