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As metro Atlanta dithered in a nearly frozen state on Monday evening, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., gathered with some brave souls in Buckhead to lay the groundwork for what could become the skeleton of a presidential campaign here.
Right now, the project is called “Build America,” with local GOP activist Julianne Thompson and state Rep. John Pezold, R-Fortson, among the co-chairs. Former Hall County commissioner Ashley Bell is on the list of national co-chairs.
Before the event, Paul checked in by telephone for a quick interview. A partial transcription:
Insider: This “Build America” project of yours – should we consider this a shadow campaign, a preliminary campaign?
Paul: It’s an acknowledgement that people in Washington don’t build anything, and don’t really know much about what goes on in the rest of America. I live in fly-over America. I’m very conscious that people in Washington and many of the elites in our country have no idea what somebody in Georgia thinks would be good for business – someone who has a McDonald’s or runs a grocery store – what they do to stay in business and make a payroll.
This is a way to get me to bypass official Washington, bypass lobbyists and have people that I can meet in all the different states. Should we run, sure, they become people that can get me information and that can be a voice for reason outside of official Washington.
Insider: On Sunday, House Speaker John Boehner said he was “certainly” willing to shut off funding to the Department of Homeland Security over the House bill that also includes a repeal of President Barack Obama’s executive order forestalling deportation of millions of illegal immigrants. Senate Majority Mitch McConnell has said there won’t be a shutdown. Where are you on this?
Paul: It’s not so much being for or against. It’s deciding how you’re for or against something. For example, I think it is very important that the president not be able to write law and that he execute law written by Congress. And that he not execute action that contradicts what Congress wants. That doesn’t really indicate what my position is on immigration or on the shutdown, but it does mean that I’m very much worried about a president who thinks he can write the law….
I guess I don’t look at it as shutdown versus not shutdown. It would be better if government weren’t run this way. We lurch from deadline to deadline to deal with what’s called a continuing resolution, which means they glom all the spending together in one bill…
Insider: So would you be siding with McConnell on this?
Paul: It’s difficult to say exactly what that is. We just had a vote on whether or not to attach the instructions that we would not fund the executive order on immigration. I think every Republican but one, myself included, voted to say to the president that you can’t write the law….
The question is what ultimately happens. I guess it doesn’t really mean I’m for shutting down the Department of Homeland Security – just that I’m trying to send a message that we need to obey the Constitution. It’s really not easily done, because we have no power to make him do it. The president could even veto it if we passed it, and right now we have no Democrats on board. So really, we are truly at an impasse, and I really don’t know what the answer is — how we come out of the impasse.
Insider: You’re being squired around town by former Hall County commissioner Ashley Bell, who has worked with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus on bringing more minorities into the GOP. How is that working?
Paul: No. 1, it’s the right thing to do, but No. 2, I think it’s our route to electoral success for the presidency. I tell everybody, the party’s got to look like the rest of America – black, white, brown, rich, poor, with tattoos, without tattoos, with earrings, without earrings. We’ve got to look more like America.
I’m trying everything I can to broaden that reach. Part of that is admitting that there still is, in some ways, two Americas – liked Martin Luther King talked about in ’67. Then it was de jure, or by law, now it’s sort of de facto. But it still exists. Some of it actually is still a legal problem. Minorities tend to get caught up in the criminal justice system more than whites. I think some of it’s a disproportionate amount of poverty and lack of good representation.
If people are always in one neighborhood, more people of that color are going to get snatched up, even though white kids are doing the same thing. Police just don’t happen to be in their neighborhood as much. It adds up after a while.
Insider: Did you hear what FBI Director James Comey said on this topic last week?
Paul: Yes, but I’m not sure I completely agree with him. He was talking more about – and I think it’s important to talk about this – that people still make judgments based on the color of their skin. I think that’s probably true.
But I think in the war on drugs, it’s more to do with an inadvertent racial outcome, because many of the policemen in the big cities are black. And I don’t know that black policemen are prejudiced in their arrests. I think they just tend to go where crime is. And unfortunately there are a disproportionate amount of African-Americans among the poor, Hispanics among the poor. But if you look at whites according to income, you’d find that a disproportionate amount of poor whites are incarcerated, too.
So what I would say is that sentences needs to be fairer. Putting somebody in jail for 50 years for selling marijuana is ridiculous and ought to stop.
When people have served their time, they ought to get their right to vote back. I have a bill with [Senate Minority Leader] Harry Reid to restore federal voting rights after you’ve served your time….
Insider: How often are we going to be seeing you down here?
Paul: You know, Atlanta – I love coming back to Atlanta. I met my wife here. She worked for Sprint back in the ‘80s. We met about ’89. I was at Georgia Baptist Medical Center, which is now Atlanta Medical. I also did a couple months at Grady when I was in medical school in ’87. So I have fond memories of Atlanta.
I was a Braves fan when they lost a hundred games.
Insider: It’s about to be déjà vu.
http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2015/0...s/?ecmp=ajc_social_facebook_2014_politics_sfp
