Rand Paul, who won the Republican nomination for Senate in Kentucky, has gotten some attention for criticizing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for requiring private businesses to desegregate.
Last night, Rachel Maddow tried to get Paul to say clearly whether he thinks those private businesses should still be allowed to enact segregation. Though he was emphatic that he doesn’t believe in “discrimination of any form,” Paul wouldn’t give a straight answer on whether that extended to private businesses.
“The thing is,” he said at one point, “if we want to harbor in on private businesses and their policies, then you have to have the discussion about do you want to abridge the First Amendment as well?”
Watch:
