by Don Weber, @DonWeber_cn2 –
LEXINGTON – Republican U.S. Senator Rand Paul told a gathering in Lexington on Wednesday that he believes that his race against Democratic nominee Jim Gray is all about who will do a better job of protecting Kentucky’s citizens from burdensome government intrusion.
Paul, has spent the last 2 weeks crisscrossing the state putting on numerous town hall meetings where he presents voters with his views on a variety of subjects before taking questions from those in attendance.
He emphasized the importance of defending Kentuckians from government overreach.
“I think that it’s very important that we have somebody that can defend Kentucky against overzealous regulators, people trying to bankrupt the country,” Paul said. “I’ve done everything that I can in my power to try to make the government balance their budget.”
Paul, notes that some in both parties may fall short from being totally united behind their presidential nominees, but feels like, that, in time, both sides will come around and back their respective nominees.
“I think both parties have a little bit of dissension, both on right and on left,” Paul said. “I think that there’s a lot of Bernie Sanders people that are quite unhappy in seeing, you know, quite a bit of corruption with Clinton that they don’t think is good for changing things in the country. But, I think eventually, both parties will unify more.”
Paul admits that he has had his own differences with Trump, but feels that he agrees with him on more issues than not and will support the Republican nominee.
“I do agree with some major principles that we should lower taxes, lessen regulation,” Paul said. “He’s come out for lessening some of the over the top and onerous regulations of the coal industry. Hillary Clinton has come out with the opposite so, purely from a Kentucky point of view, I don’t think that you can be a friend of Kentucky and support someone like Hillary Clinton, who wants to, and says, that she wants to put your coal miners out of business.”
Another hot topic, in light of the recent police shootings and terrorist attacks, is talk of gun control, something that Paul feels will not keep guns away from the criminals.
“I do think a fundamental part of our country is the Bill of Rights,” Paul said. “In the Bill of Rights we said that the press was free to say what they want, people would be free to practice their religion, and we’d also be free to have gun ownership. Unless people really what to change that, and I don’t really get the feeling that people in Kentucky want to change the Second Amendment, I think some of the reasonable things that we have in place work relatively well.”
Paul has three town halls scheduled for Thursday in Mount Washington, Taylorsville, and LaGrange.
