Rand Paul: Tea Party's been "hijacked and hoodwinked" by "false conservative" Donald Trump

Trump immediately responded on Twitter, calling the him "a spoiled brat without a properly functioning brain"

Published August 11, 2015 12:45PM (EDT)

  (Fox News/screenshot)
(Fox News/screenshot)

Rand Paul joined "O'Reilly Factor" guest host Eric Bolling Monday night to defend an op-ed in which he called out Donald Trump for being a "false conservative" who is, essentially if not in actuality, a Democratic plant in the GOP field designed to win the White House for Hillary Clinton.

"The Tea Party erupted over dissatisfaction with false conservatives," he wrote in his editorial. "It amazes me that anyone in the Tea Party movement could possibly consider Clinton/Reid/Pelosi supporter Donald Trump for President. I honestly have no idea what Mr. Trump’s real philosophy is. He was liberal before he was conservative, and has openly professed for decades that his views are those of a Democrat."

"It makes me sad to think that Tea Party awakening could be hijacked or hoodwinked by a guy who supported the bank bailouts, supported Obamacare, and continues to support the Clintons."

He added that Trump "sounds too much like he is someone used to bullying to get his way," a sentiment he expanded upon during his conversation with Bolling. "I think all the bravado, all the 'you're stupid' kind of language doesn't really get us anywhere," he said. "But it makes you think that all that imperiousness, he's just going to say, 'I'm Donald Trump, and it is so.'"

"One of my concerns," Rand continued, "and one of the concerns of the Tea Party is that the executive branch has grown too strong, and we need to give power back to the people, back to the legislature. My concern is that he'd grab up that power and, really, treat the country as his little bully fiefdom."

Paul mentioned comments Trump made to the Wall Street Journal to the effect that he buys politicians in order to force them to do "whatever the hell I tell them to do." In this respect, he explained, he's no better than Hillary Clinton "who sells access, or appears to sell access, [and] isn't that equally despicable?"

He also attacked Trump for claiming "I must be smart because I'm rich," saying that people are eventually "going to ask whether the emperor have any clothes, or does he even have a brain, frankly?"

Bolling asked the Kentucky senator whether he wasn't afraid that Trump was "going to aim his guns at you, because he's not afraid to take shots at anyone" -- and "taking shots" was precisely what Trump was doing on Twitter as this interview aired:

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[embedtweet id="630907466008653824"]

Watch the entire interview with Paul via Fox News below.


By Scott Eric Kaufman

MORE FROM Scott Eric Kaufman


Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Donald Trump Elections 2016 Eric Bolling Fox News Hillary Clinton Rand Paul The O'reilly Factor