Rand Paul pushes back on Chris Christie claim that next president needs to be a governor: Look at Jimmy Carter
• Christie said this week he's 'convinced that the next president of the United States is going to be a governor—and needs to be'
• Rand Paul told MailOnline that Christie was oversimplifying presidential politics; 'Jimmy Carter wasn't that great of a president,' he said
• Paul is a presumed 2016 presidential candidate; he spoke to MailOnline after his appearance at a rally for Georgia Senate candidate David Perdue
• The Kentucky senator told Georgians they should elect Perdue because the Senate already has enough lawyers and not enough businessmen
By FRANCESCA CHAMBERS FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 17:22 EST, 24 October 2014
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul pushed back on Friday on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's claim earlier this week that the next President of the United States 'needs to be' a governor.
'Jimmy Carter wasn't that great of a president,' Paul, a likely 2016 presidential candidate, told MailOnline in an interview after his appearance this afternoon at a rally for Georgia Senate candidate David Perdue.
'I just...I'm not sure that's the best thing, such a simplistic sort of criteria...for what we do,' the first-term senator said.
In a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., Christie said he is 'convinced that the next president of the United States is going to be a governor—and needs to be.'
The presumed 2016 presidential candidate added: 'We have had an experiment of a legislator who has never run anything getting on-the-job training in the White House. It has not been pretty. And so we need to have a big and broad bench of good, experienced Republican governors to select from in 2016.'
On Friday Paul told MailOnline that there have been good governors that went on to be good presidents. Furthermore, he said, there have been bad governors that have been good senators.
'I think we'll figure it out over time,' Paul said, 'but it's probably simplistic to think that one particular occupation makes one person better than the other.'
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