Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) didn’t like the way a CNBC anchor was interviewing him, so he told her to “calm down,” saying she was mischaracterizing basic facts in her questions.
The exchange came in an interview with CNBC anchor Kelly Evans on Monday. Evans asked Paul about legislation he is co-sponsoring with Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) that would allow companies that have cash overseas to bring it home at a holiday corporate tax rate of 6.5 percent. Here’s the transcript of the exchange:
Paul: Well that is incorrect. Let’s go back again. Your premise and your question is mistaken.
Evans: Alright.
Paul: Most of the research doesn’t indicate that. In fact, there is a prominent study by Robert Shapiro looking at the holiday in 2005, when we lowered the rate to 5 percent, and his conclusion was that it brought $300 billion of new capital home. And then it brought it about $30 billion of new tax revenue. The whole purpose of doing that is to bring the money home. There’s two trillion —
Evans: Right, but it works that first year, senator. But their concern is down the road.
Paul: Hey, let me finish. Hey, hey, Kelly.
Evans: I’m sorry, go ahead.
Paul: Calm down a bit here, Kelly. Let me answer the question. The whole point of this legislation is that money has been accumulating. Much money has actually been inverting and people are reincorporating because the tax code in our country is not encouraging money to come home. So this is to lower tax rate, to bring more money home, and to take that new money, some of the tax revenue, and put it into the highway fund. I think this is a win-win-win. You lower a tax rate, you bring in more revenue and you are actually able to plug a whole we have in our highway trust fund.
Evans: What people want, senator, is for you to make this permanent. Why not just make it 6.5 percent period? The problem is that as it happened in 2005—
Paul: Let me answer the question before you get going.
Evans: Alright.
Later on in the interview, Evans asked Paul about a potential conflict of interest concerning Paul’s ophthalmology group in Kentucky. Paul said Evans was “mischaracterizing and confusing the whole situation.”
“I’m only asking about the part that they raised issue with, which was the board,” Evans said. “They said ‘Look, it is a bunch of his family and friends, basically.'”
Paul continued to criticize Evans throughout the interview. At the end, he said it was “bad TV” and “if we do this again, you need to start out with a little more objectivity going into the interview.”
“I will certainly try my best, senator. We hope you will come back and give us that chance,” Evans said.
Watch the interview below:
Republicans are WINNING female voters.
Keep that outreach going, you asshat.
Rand’s batting 1000 today.
And seriously, shouldn’t politicians be somewhat fearful of the media, instead of bossing them around like children? And shouldn’t media folks be able to stand up for themselves instead of apologizing?
Even with Paul in heels, Evans towers over the Jr. Senator…