FOX News "Your World" - Transcript

Interview

FOX News "Your World" - Transcript

MR. CAVUTO: Well, a warm and fuzzy side, even a funny side, either you have it, though, or you don't. So do these ads do anything to convince people? With us now, GOP presidential candidate and Texas congressman. He joins us now from Manchester, New Hampshire, and to the best of my knowledge, the congressman has not run one warm and fuzzy ad.

Congressman, what do you think of this?

REP. PAUL: What do I think of what, Neil? I don't quite get it.

MR. CAVUTO: I can't see you doing these type of ads. Do you think they're a waste of time?

REP. PAUL: Well, I haven't made a judgment. It seems irrelevant. It seems to me I'd rather talk about monetary policy and foreign policy and spending. So some of these ads I don't think are too important. We had an ad out, a Merry Christmas ad, and I don't think it's necessarily bad.

MR. CAVUTO: All right. Well, because a lot of the people who know you very well, Congressman, say actually you're very funny and you're a very warm guy yourself. Now, most people exposed to you on the campaign trail know that you're the guy with the Libertarian views and tough positions on taxes and Iraq. Would it help those who don't know you to know that warm and fuzzy side of Ron Paul?

REP. PAUL: Well, I would hope so. But I have warm and fuzzy positions. You know, I believe in freedom and limited government and let the people alone. So that's pretty warm and fuzzy, you know, allowing people to lead their own lives. So I don't think the ad just to deal with personalities isn't very necessary.

MR. CAVUTO: Do you think they work, though? That these type -- you've been around this before. You've been, you know, in Congress for many years. You've tried this presidential thing before. Do you think that these type of ads register with people just as someone who watches the process?

REP. PAUL: No, I would say that the people who are joining our campaign by the tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands and those who are sending the money aren't even motivated by that. I mean, I think they like to know who I am, and they want to know me and like me and know I'm a grandfather and like kids. But I think what motivates them are my political beliefs and what I believe in the Constitution and monetary policy. That's what energizes people. But I don't think you can divorce it completely from the personality. But if you have bad policies and you think you can overcome bad policy with, you know, these fuzzy ads and think that personality is going to overcome bad policy, it won't work, no way. But if you can get good policies and a good personality, then I think it's great.

MR. CAVUTO: Congressman, let me ask you -- you talk about the amount of money you've raised over the Internet and for your campaign in general. And it is staggering -- last Sunday alone, $6 million- plus. There are reports, sir, that your campaign has received a $500 campaign donation from a white supremacist in West Palm Beach. And your campaign had indicated you have no intention to return it. What are you going to do with that?

REP. PAUL: It's probably already spent. Why give it back to him and use it for bad purposes? You know, I don't even know his name, I never heard of it. You know, when you get 57,000 donations (a day ?), are we supposed to screen them and find out their beliefs? He sent the money for my beliefs. And if he's promoting my viewpoints and my attitudes, why give it back to him if he has bad viewpoints? And I don't endorse anything that he endorses or what anybody endorses. They come to me to endorse freedom and the Constitution and limited government. So I see no purpose for me to start screening everybody that sends me money. I mean, it's impossible to do it. It's a ridiculous idea that I'm supposed to screen these people.

MR. CAVUTO: All right. So Congressman, when you find out that it's this Don Black who made the donation, and he ran a site called Stormfront White Pride Worldwide -- now that you know it, now that you're familiar after the fact, you still would not return it?

REP. PAUL: Well, if I spent his money and I took the money that maybe you might have sent to me and donated back to him, that doesn't make any sense to me. Why should I give him money back to promote his cause? That doesn't make any sense to me.

MR. CAVUTO: So what do you think, Congressman, of the candidates who do this? Either they say oh, we got money from a group now we're aware was kind of sticky. We don't want to have it. Hillary Clinton has had to do this. Some of the other candidates have had to do this. Do you think that just is a bad practice?

REP. PAUL: I think it's pandering. I think it's playing the political correctness so that when you quiz them then they can say oh, Neil, yeah, I did exactly what you're suggesting I should do, and brag about how pure they are. You know, I think that's a bit of pandering. There's no way that I'm going to institute a policy of looking at 100(,000), 200,000 of these donations and find out. What about the people who get donations (from ?) special interests, from the Military Industrial Complex? They raise, bundle their money and send millions of dollars in there, and they want to rob the taxpayers. That is the real evil.

I mean, it is the evil that buys influence in government. And this is, to me, the corruption that should be corrected, not to pick out one of my donors out of 100,000 donors and say ah, Ron Paul isn't doing the right thing, because he hasn't sent the money back. I mean, I think you're missing the whole boat. Because it's the immorality of government, it's the special interest in government, it's fighting illegal wars and financing and taxing the people, destroying the people through inflation and undermining the prosperity of the country. Now there is a moral problem that we should be dealing with, and that should be the responsibility of government. That's what I stand for. And if people send me money and I spend it for that purpose, I feel good about it.

MR. CAVUTO: All right, Congressman. And to be fair, your campaign has raised well over $10 million in just a little more than a week. Kind of hard to keep track of contributions as little as $500. Thank you very much.

REP. PAUL: People believe in our message.

MR. CAVUTO: All right. Thank you, very good seeing you.

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