Larry King interviews Ron Paul on trade agreement, Rand Paul, Fox debate rules
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Tonight on PoliticKING, Former Republican congressman and three-time presidential candidate Ron Paul tells Larry King why his son Senator Rand Paul stands a better chance at winning the presidency then he did. Plus, what he really thinks of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. And why he thinks Fox News “has a very powerful agenda” and “a sort of monopoly” for the Republican presidential debates.
KING: What are your concerns about the trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal?
PAUL: Well, I’m not for it and the main reason is it’s an illegal transfer of power, so even if there happens to be something good in it, you don’t sacrifice the Constitution. The Constitution is very clear that the Congress has the authority to regulate commerce. You can’t just say to the president, you can do whatever you want, and a matter of fact, they have agreed in this policy, that what they put into this, they can keep information secret. And it’ll be as classified, and even that should be enough to stop it. But I don’t like it because it’s thousands of pages, very complex, has to do with protectionism, even though it’s all done in the name of free trade. I’m a free trader, I believe in low tariffs, I believe that people can spend the money they want, but this has nothing to do with free trade. This has to do with managed trade, and it helps certain companies over others, and it’s a good way to get permission to put on tariffs and controls when you’re annoyed with what other companies are doing.
Check out the clip below.
Larry King also asks Ron Paul what he thinks of Fox News hosting the first presidential debate among the Republicans and restricting the number of participants. “Contendants have to place within the top ten in five major national polls to participate,” says Larry. “What do you think of that?”
PAUL: I don’t like the debate process, you know. When in ‘07 when Fox was holding the first one, about two days before was being held, and I was doing very well on the polls, they just uninvited me, which was, as far as the campaign goes, it wasn’t very helpful. So, no, I think there has to be a better way of choosing, I mean it’s sort of like, why do the candidates roll over and abide by the rules of some commercial organization that has an agenda? And Fox certainly has a very powerful agenda, so who knows the rating. I know that even on their polling after debates, I usually won all the polling, but they would say, well there’s a mistake and they would ignore it, so I don’t like the idea that somebody like Fox has sort of monopoly control of how a debate will be run.
KING: Do you think your politics hurt or help your son?
PAUL: It probably helps more than it hurts, but you know, because I was Independent, he’s rather Independent, if you’re working for the status quo, it provides some problems. But I think he does a much better job at overcoming that, and here he has McConnell has endorsed him for the presidency, so I would say that he’s done pretty good at trying to work within the Republican party, and that’s been one of his goals, but he’s also claimed that he has to grow the Republican party and that’s why he spent so much time on civil liberties and the drug war and how the minorities have been mistreated in the drug war, and I think that is very good. So I think that he has done quite well in that regard, but it’s also a challenge, obviously.
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