Rand Paul: McConnell May Not Have Meant To Threaten Tea Party

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., speaks at the Conservative Political Action Committee annual conference in National Harbor, Md., Friday, March 7, 2014. Friday marks the second day of the annual Conservative Political Action C... Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., speaks at the Conservative Political Action Committee annual conference in National Harbor, Md., Friday, March 7, 2014. Friday marks the second day of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, which brings together prospective presidential candidates, conservative opinion leaders and tea party activists from coast to coast. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) MORE LESS
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Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) suggested that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) may not have intended to say he would “crush” tea party candidates challenging incumbent Republicans.

Paul, in an interview on Glenn Beck’s radio show posted on Tuesday, said that “in the middle of the campaign things are said that may not be intended.”

His comments came in response to McConnell, who in a New York Times interview over the weekend, predicted he and his incumbent allies “are going to crush them everywhere.”

“I don’t think they are going to have a single nominee anywhere in the country,” McConnell added in the interview.

There’s reason for McConnell to be optimistic. The tea party candidate challenging him is increasingly looking like a long shot as are many of the other high profile tea party challengers throughout the country.

Here’s Paul’s full comment:

The tea party are simply people who are concerned with debt and deficit and so are most Republicans. You know, I think sometimes what separates some of the grassroots from the establishment is tactics on how they want to exploit this and I think in the middle of the campaign things are said that may not be intended but all I can say is that I still believe the tea party is a big factor and will be a big factor in the elections.

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