CBS "Face the Nation" - Transcript: Criminal Justice System, Ebola, and Presidential Elections

Interview

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We're going to begin this morning with one of the Republican candidates' most popular surrogates, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who has campaigned, I'm told, Senator, in more than 30 states.

PAUL: I have been racking up some frequent flyer miles. That's for sure.

SCHIEFFER: Absolutely. You know, you had a somewhat surprising comment the other day. You said -- and this is your quote -- "The Republican brand sucks." That's a pretty unusual rallying cry in an election year. What do you mean by that?

PAUL: Well, you know, what I meant by that is that, if I were to go into a college campus today and I were to talk to a young person and say, hey, you want to be part of the Republican Party, or let's say I go and talk to a young African-American male or woman, do you want to be part of the Republican Party, the initial perception of our brand is, hmm.

Like, for example, I had a meeting with some conservative African-Americans recently. And I said, let's try to get something moving nationally. And they said, well, yes, but we may not want to put the word Republican in it.

So, that means essentially our brand is broken. I don't think what we stand for is bad. I believe in what the Republican Party values. But we have a wall or a barrier between us and African- American voters. So, I have spent last year trying to break down some of that wall and say, look, maybe what the Democrats have been doing for you or maybe you're being taken for granted. Maybe it's not working.

Maybe we could look at some of these Republican proposals for poverty, for long-term unemployment.

SCHIEFFER: Well, you say that, but yet, when you look at state after state that's trying to tighten these voter laws and put -- say people have to show I.D. and all that kind of stuff, it's generally the Republicans who are pushing that.

What can you really offer African-American voters?

PAUL: Well, what I have said is, I want more people to vote, not less. Harry Reid and I have a bill together to actually restore voting rights.

The number one impediment to voting in our country right now is having a previous felony conviction. So I have good friend of mine. His brother, 30 years ago grew marijuana plants, still can't vote in Kentucky. And when he applies for a job, he has to check a box saying he was a convicted felon.

I think nonviolent felonies from your youth and where you didn't hurt anybody but yourself, for goodness sakes, you ought to get your right to vote back. So, I spent a lot of time talking about this. I have a bill with Harry Reid to restore voting.

SCHIEFFER: But what about this business about tightening up the voter I.D. laws?

PAUL: I think...

SCHIEFFER: Should they be tighter? Should they have to show all this identification?

PAUL: Well, I have mixed feelings.

When I go in a government building or I want to meet Eric Holder, I have got to show my driver's license. So, I am not really opposed to it. I am opposed to it as a campaign them. If Republicans -- if you want to get the African-American vote, they think that this is suppression somehow and it's a terrible thing.

But I think if you can get beyond that and say, you know what, but I also really think that we should restore the voting rights of those who had a previous conviction, that that's where the real voting problem is -- I'm not against early voting. I grew in Texas. We voted early for a month or two before elections for probably 20 years, and Texas is still a Republican state.

But it's perception. The Republicans have to get beyond this perception that they don't want African-Americans to vote. Now, I don't think it's true. I'm not saying it's true. But by being for all these things, it reinforces a stereotype that we need to break down.

SCHIEFFER: Is this election a referendum on Barack Obama?

PAUL: Without question.

And even he admitted that his policies will be on the ballot, even though he isn't. And it's such a referendum on him that, in my state, the Democrat candidate won't even admit she voted for him for presidency. And so I think, really, it is. And I think ultimately the wind is blowing against him. People are unhappy with his leadership or lack of leadership in the country.

So, I think you're going to see -- I think the 10 seats that you say are close, you could see all 10 go Republican. I mean, really, you could see a wave here at the end, and I think people are sensing this, those who don't even want to admit that they voted for him for president.

SCHIEFFER: Let's say the Republicans do take control of the Senate. Is it enough for them to say, we're not Barack Obama, or are they going to have to come up with some sort of an agenda?

PAUL: No, I think we immediately should start passing bills.

The House passed 400 bills. They have all languished. Of the 400 bills they passed, about 50 of them are Democrat bills. I have a bill with Harry Reid I would like to pass. But the number one thing I want to pass in January is there's $2 trillion worth of American profit overseas.

I want to invite that and encourage that money to come home to create American jobs. We can have a stimulus in January. Barbara Boxer agrees with me on this. This is a bipartisan bill. People on the right and the left invite that corporate money, Google, Apple, Caterpillar. All these great companies have money overseas. They could bring it home and stimulate our economy and we could have a boom like we haven't seen in years, but we just have to vote on the issue. I say vote on it in January as one of our first things.

SCHIEFFER: Do you think that the gridlock will end? Because what I keep hearing people say, look, it really doesn't make any difference if Republicans control the Senate by one or two votes. Nothing is going to change. The gridlock will still be in place.

PAUL: I take Senator McConnell at his word.

As leader, He's going to allow Democrat amendments and we're going to come forward and we're going to vote on things, and we will put on the president's desk bills. I would like to put every appropriation bill. I would like to have 12 different appropriation bills, like we historical did, to put every one of them on his desk see if he will sign them. Then it's up to him.

SCHIEFFER: Tell me a couple of things that Republicans and Democrats could work together on.

PAUL: One of the things I have talked to the president about is criminal justice reform.

This means extending back the right to vote for people who made youthful nonviolent mistakes, expunging their records, trying to make it easier for them to find employment, shortening like -- I think put somebody in jail for 10 years for possession of marijuana or sale of marijuana is ridiculous.

Some people are in jail for life. So, I have called the president, and I have told him, I agree with commuting some of these sentences, lessening some of these sentences, treating it more as a health issue. So, I think people's opinions on criminal justice for nonviolent drug crimes has changed. That is something we could do together.

SCHIEFFER: One of the things hanging over this election is this Ebola outbreak. Is the government following the right policies here?

PAUL: I think the president's biggest mistake was like saying, oh, it's no big deal, you can't catch it if you're sitting on a bus with somebody.

Well, apparently, you can be intensive care unit gloved, gowned and masked and still get it. It's very contagious when someone is sick. So, I think it was a mistake for him to say, oh, it's not big deal. You can be riding on a bus. And we're not going to stop any travel.

American public sees people getting it who are fully masked and gowned and saying, my goodness, I don't think anybody should be riding on a bus or coming from Liberia to visit their aunt or uncle and when they could be contagious. So, I think a temporary stop of travel for elective travel, if you're coming to visit your relatives, couldn't that wait for a few months?

SCHIEFFER: You're a doctor. Samantha Power, who was the U.N. -- is the U.N. ambassador, will be talking to us later in the broadcast. She is just back. She went to all three of those countries.

You're a doctor. Would you feel safe going to one of those countries to administer to those...

PAUL: You know, the Doctors Without Borders and the nurses who are doing it I think are real heroes, because they do take a risk.

So, I think if someone said, oh, I'm going to be perfectly safe, they wouldn't be being honest. But I have a great deal of admiration for these doctors, because I think they do take their life in their own hands and they are doing something at their own peril.

So, I think we have to -- it's almost the same way we treat people who do service for our country in the military. People who would do that kind of service in the medical profession deserve a great deal of respect and admiration.

SCHIEFFER: Do you think we ought to tighten the restrictions on who can come to this country? Canada has just said citizens from those countries can't come into Canada.

PAUL: The interesting thing is I think, from the beginning of our country, we always had restrictions on infectious disease. In fact, that was one of the primary things we did at our border was to stop.

We have in most recent years stopped drug-resistant tuberculosis patients from coming into this country. When we had polio, we had restrictions on things with polio. So, I don't think it's out of the ordinary for government to be involved in this.

And what I'm looking at is not a stopping of sending humanitarian aid to them or workers to them. What I'm saying is, elective travel, commercial travel for people who just want to visit the United States, that really isn't a necessity, and we can wait few months on it. And it would make our problem a lot less if we were only thinking about health care workers coming back.

But then they need a consistent program for that, and they need to not be -- I think it was unsettling to a lot of us when they blamed nurse for getting Ebola. That -- I mean, I'm in the medical profession. So, I would never blame a nurse for getting an infectious disease.

And I have had friends who have had needle sticks taking care of AIDS patients. So, I understand what it's like to have accidents happen all the time, even when you're trying to do the best you can.

SCHIEFFER: You're obviously thinking about running for president in 2016. Someone else who is thinking about it is Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey. He was out on the campaign trail last week.

Here is a little cut of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: There's been 23 months since then when all you have been doing is flapping your mouth and not doing anything. So, listen, you want to have the conversation later, I'm happy to have it, buddy. But until that time, sit down and shut up.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHIEFFER: What do you think? Is that the right demeanor for somebody getting ready to run for president?

PAUL: I think this sort of bully demeanor may go over well in certain places. But I can't imagine that -- I grew up in the South. And we're, yes, ma'am, and, no, sir, and a little bit more polite.

So, I don't think that -- I think people want someone to be bold. And there was a time when I thought, you know what? When he stands up and he says things boldly, that's kind of good. He's not taking any flak. But there can be do much of that too.

We live in a world where we have so much cacophony of voices on TV sometimes of yelling back and forth. And I think there's a resurgence of people who want a little more civility and discourse.

SCHIEFFER: Well, are you going to run?

(LAUGHTER)

PAUL: Maybe. I don't know. We're thinking about it. And some time in the next six months, I will make a final decision, but some time in the spring.

SCHIEFFER: Well, I hope you will come right here and tell us when you make that decision.

PAUL: All right. Thanks, Bob.

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