House Republicans are reportedly unhappy with Sen. Rand Paul’s decision to give his own response to President Obama’s State of the Union address, with a leadership aide ripping the move as “blatant” self-promotion in comments to the Huffington Post.
The aide told the Post that GOP leadership offices were “unhappy” with Paul offering his own response, which competed with the official party reply given by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and a tea party response from Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT).
The aide lamented that the divided response resulted in stories highlighting the still-apparent fractures within the Republican party. The offices of Paul, Lee and the GOP leadership told the Post that they had not coordinated their strategy in rebutting the president’s address.
