Ron Paul calls Gingrich ‘desperate’
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer spoke with Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) about his 2012 presidential competitors. Two highlights from the interview are after the jump.
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Highlight from Full Interview – Paul on Romney
THIS IS A RUSH FDCH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, ANCHOR: Where do you have your biggest problem, though, with Mitt Romney?
REP. RON PAUL (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I think it’s been more of not knowing exactly where he has stood in the past. I mean, he’s flip-flopped. He’s had different positions on quite a few things, and of course, the single-payer — the single mandate on individuals that he had in Massachusetts, that worries me a bit.
And he’s had — supported the TARP bailouts, and he’s pretty supportive of the monetary system which is friendly to banks. So, those are the areas, and of course, we have strong disagreements on foreign policy.
So, yes, we have our disagreements. But in this case, I just think that it was undermining some basic free market principles that annoyed me a little bit, and that’s why I made those comments.
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BLITZER: All right. Several of your Republican counterparts on the presidential campaign trail have condemned him for saying he likes to fire people. But you’re stopping short of that. Give us your perspective on what’s going on here.
PAUL: Well, if the other candidates that are criticizing Mitt are serious, then they don’t have the vaguest idea about the market because all he’s talking about is the market. If they do have an understanding of the market and know they’re wrong, then they’re just politically demagoguing this to try to get a political point.
But to pick and choose your consumers and your customers, that’s the basis of the free market, and also to condemn him for restructuring and making some money, if somebody restructures and doesn’t get any money from the government, doesn’t commit fraud, restructuring is a very important part of the free market. This is how you cleanse the system, this is how you clean up a corporation.
If you don’t restructure when they’re on the ropes, everybody loses. Matter of fact, that principle ought to be applied to the federal government. That’s what I’ve been trying to do, do a lot of restructuring at the federal government and get rid of all the wasteful departments and the wasteful spending.
Highlight from Full Interview – Paul on Gingrich
THIS IS A RUSH FDCH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BLITZER: You want to respond to the former speaker?
PAUL: Yes, I guess he’s worried because his appeal isn’t quite as good as our appeal, because we’re talking about freedom, freedom of choice, freedom across the board, individual liberty, economic liberty, and a foreign policy that makes sense.
But when he says I don’t care about the Iranians, that’s nonsense. I’m just trying to avoid another war. But to say I don’t care about them getting nuclear weapons, that’s just — that’s complete nonsense.
So, yes. I think he’s struggling, and he’s probably pretty desperate, so he’s saying those kind of things. But when he talks about the supporters, that’s just a little annoying. I don’t like him to attack my supporters.
Matter of fact, there are a lot of them. I don’t know why he’d want to go out and annoy a lot of supporters if he wants to be a Republican candidate. So, he’s attacking a lot of people by saying that Ron’s Paul’s supporters do this and do that.
The one thing is, is they believe in freedom. I’m not so sure that Newt clearly understands what that’s all about.
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