Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) slammed CNN for spreading misinformation about the China Virus on the Todd Starnes Show Wednesday.
The Kentucky senator went after the liberal network while discussing coronavirus “hypocrisy” and “elitism” from Democrats in power, enacting mask and vaccine mandates they themselves don’t follow.
“There’s also a lot of misinformation, all you have to do is turn on CNN for about 30 seconds and you’ll be full of misinformation,” Paul told host Todd Starnes. “They tell you that we’re not vaccinating very well. It’s the opposite. We probably never had such successful vaccination.”
The physician pointed out 90 percent of people over 65 have chosen to be vaccinated, and over 50 around 80 percent.
“So it’s not that nobody’s getting vaccinated. The vast majority of people are. The problem we’re facing now is people who are unvaccinated are getting sick, but also people are vaccinated are getting sick as well because the Delta variant now is escaping the vaccine,” Paul said. “I still think the vaccine helps you to have had it if you get the Delta variant. But the thing is, is there are other treatments out there, too.”
Paul praised Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) for “saving lives” in his state putting up monoclonal clinics.
“But a lot of people don’t even know about this because, you know, Fauci’s dancing around on TV wearing three masks,” Paul concluded, “and that is when he’s not at the baseball game where he apparently thinks he can pull down and laugh at the rest of us.”
Listen to Sen. Rand Paul’s interview with Todd Starnes below on the ToddCast podcast:
The following is a rushed transcript of Sen. Rand Paul’s interview on the Todd Starnes Show Thursday:
STARNES: We know yesterday that Democrats in the House stripped a billion dollars for Israel’s Iron Dome defense system. It is it’s a horrible thing that the Democrats have done. But now we’ve got a call on the Republicans to do their best to hold the line here. And we understand Mitch McConnell has promised to do that. I want to go to the Patriot Mobile newsmaker line. We are honored to have with us from the great state of Kentucky, Senator Rand Paul. Senator, good to have you on today.
PAUL: Thanks. Glad to be with you, Todd.
STARNES: And, Senator, what can you tell us? What is the mood among your colleagues in the Senate when it comes to this debt ceiling?
PAUL: You know, I think there’s a great deal of unity among the Republicans. I think very few, if any, of the Republicans will vote to raise the debt ceiling. There might be a couple, but not enough. If the Democrats want to spend and borrow close to five, six trillion dollars in one year, they ought to raise the debt ceiling. This is on them. If they want to bankrupt the country, they want to ruin our currency. They want to bring back 1970s style double-digit inflation. They ought to vote for it. And not one self-respecting Republican who claims to care about the deficit should vote to raise the debt ceiling.
STARNES: Well, I’m with you on that. And we had a caller earlier in the program who pointed out that, you know, the reason he became a Republican is he thought the Republicans were fiscally responsible. But, you know, time and time again, we’ve seen that not to be the case. But this is on the Democrats this go around.
PAUL: Yeah, I think both parties have some blame to go around. I mean, when people ask me who’s responsible for the deficit, the Republicans or the Democrats, I usually just say, yes. You know, both parties are responsible. The Democrats are honest about it. They don’t care about the debt. They just want to put up as much money and give you as much so-called free stuff. They can pull out the door in order to buy your vote. Republicans are a little bit more nuanced on this. Most of them go home and say they’re against the debt, but about half of them up here vote for the big-spending bills and vote for more debt. This time around, though, they’re wanting to pin the tail on the donkey, so to speak. And it is accurate this time around. The Democrats are the ones wanting to borrow another three and a half trillion. We just borrowed another trillion last month. We borrowed two trillion earlier in the year for so-called covid stuff. So really, we’re up to about five to six trillion dollars they’re going to borrow in one year and it’s on them. They ought to own it if they think debt doesn’t matter. Put their vote out there and be proud of it.
STARNES: You know, Senator, you mentioned covid. And we’ve been getting inundated with calls from people, especially parents with kids in the military. And they’re really distraught, you know, that they don’t know what to do. We’re hearing about a lot of people that are just leaving their jobs. What are you hearing with regard to the military and this mandatory vaccine?
PAUL: You know, I think any kind of mandate that doesn’t take into account those who have already had covid is really unscientific and really ought to be unlawful. Think about it this way. For the last year and a half, our hospital workers, nurses, doctors, orderlies, you name it, have been dealing with covid patients, risking their lives even before there was a vaccine. So tens of thousands of Americans who work in hospitals have already got have already had covid survived. And now we’re going to insult them by saying, oh, you’ve got to take a vaccine. And their question is, is it any better? All the studies out of Israel say that having had the disease naturally may actually protect you 27 times better than a vaccine. And I’m not arguing against a vaccine. I’m for people at risk taking the vaccine, by all means, take it as a voluntary choice. But I’m not for mandates of any kind, particularly mandates that ignore the science. Like you want to tell my five-year-old kid they have to be vaccinated even though they already at covid and had a positive test, you know, last month, that is not only against the science, that goes against all kinds of common sense. And really, we should we should really be resisting mandates that go against all common sense.
STARNES: Is that why we’re seeing the outright hypocrisy? I mean, you’ve got the Democrats, you know, party in down holding birthday parties, going to the clubs, not wearing the face masks. At the same time, telling all the rest of us that we’ve got to follow the rules that they’ve implemented in some cases on city and state levels. I mean, do they are they really concerned about the virus here? What are we supposed to make of all of this?
PAUL: It’s the height of hypocrisy and it’s also a side effect of elitism. Elitism is that they think the common rabble is not smart enough or not smart enough in the flyover country to take care of ourselves. They’re going to do it for us. But then they’re disdainful of the rules because the rules are onerous and the rules are really made for the common man, they say, and that’s what we have. But there’s also a lot of misinformation, all you have to do is turn on CNN for about 30 seconds and you’ll be full of misinformation. They tell you that we’re not vaccinating very well. It’s the opposite. We probably never had such successful vaccination. 90 percent of people over 65 have chosen voluntarily to get vaccinated because they see it best interest over age 50. It’s like 75, 80 percent of people over 50 have chosen to be vaccinated. So it’s not that nobody’s getting vaccinated. The vast majority of people are. The problem we’re facing now is people who are unvaccinated are getting sick, but also people are vaccinated are getting sick as well because the Delta variant now is escaping the vaccine. I still think the vaccine helps you to have had it if you get the Delta variant. But the thing is, is there are other treatments out there, too. DeSantis is saving lives every day in Florida by putting out these I.V. monoclonal clinics to make more accessible. I’ve talked to three prominent Kentuckians in the last week who were sick with COVID, and they all told me they weren’t aware of the monoclonal antibodies till they talked to me. And because of my help, I got them the monoclonal antibodies before they got too sick. But a lot of people don’t even know about this because, you know, Fauci’s dancing around on TV wearing three masks, you know, and that is when he’s not at the baseball game where he apparently thinks he can pull down and laugh at the rest of us.
STARNES: That’s a fair point.
PAUL: You know, hypocrisy going around and people need to stand up on it. But people also need to remember that I’m not telling you not to get vaccinated. I actually do think if you’re at risk, got to be vaccinated. I think it does help on the margins to reduce this or even significantly. But I’m not for mandating it on way. It ought to be suggestions. In a free society, every individual makes their own choice.
STARNES: Kind of like the Democrats are giving the illegals invading the country down in Texas right now, they’re getting that choice. On that note, Senator, NBC News reporting another 20,000 Haitians may be headed to the Texas border. The Border Patrol agents coming under fire. Apparently, the Democrats can’t tell the difference between a whip and a rein. What do we need to do? There is a danger. There is a very dangerous situation, in my estimation, when you’ve got one point two, one point three million illegals coming into the country per year.
PAUL: Well, Senator Johnson, asked an important question of Mayorkas, who’s in charge of homeland security and should know this. Of the one point three million, how many of you dispersed into our country? He wouldn’t tell him. And, you know, he knows the answer to that. He may not know it under the person, but he knows whether it’s 50 percent of the one point three million or whether it’s 25 percent, whether it’s five percent. He knows approximately what it is. I think it’s extraordinary. Maybe half of them are being dispersed into our country. You know what? If you know, would we not be even more alarmed if we knew 500000 people who hadn’t necessarily been tested? I mean, I heard a story just today of people being dropped off in Florida with covid who are illegal immigrants and then sent to Florida on a plane with covid and then they’re dropped off in some community in Florida. So we’re you know, if they really cared about covid or they’re worried about spreading a pandemic, they wouldn’t be bringing people in who had the disease and then dispersing them people who broke into the country illegally and then dispersing them around the country. I mean, it sounds like a factory. If you wanted to imagine how you would absolutely be able to spread the disease better, why not bring in people who have got the disease and send them on planes across the country. What a disaster.
STARNES: Do you buy into you know, Tucker Carlson was talking about this the other night on Fox, this idea of the replacement theory. That’s why the Democrats are letting all of these people into the country.
PAUL:I think that the Democrats, by and large, don’t care about these people. I think that if they cared about these people, they would worry about, you know, what kind of risk it is for young unattended women to cross the desert of Mexico, to get to our border and go across. And the things that happen to young women along the way and the drug travel that’s part of the drug trafficking is part of this, that they really care. They care only about power and voters. And they think that the vast majority of these people, the children of these people, whether they become citizens or not, their children will and that their children will choose to vote for for Democrats. And that’s, by and large been true in California. And so that’s what they want. They want to transform America. And the only way they can do it really is to see if they could legalize 15 million people who are already here and they could win two thirds of that vote. Wow. How do you think that changes the country that’s 50/50 divided? They could completely change the dynamic of the country for, you know, time, times to come. So, yeah, I think it’s about power politics, because, look, I’m a moderate on immigration. I’m actually for more lawful immigration. I’ve have several bills with Democrats to actually allow for more lawful immigration, but I’m for zero tolerance on illegal immigration. Every one of them ought to be sent back immediately. They shouldn’t be allowed to set a foot in the country. We shouldn’t have all this legal crap that once they get in here, they should not be allowed in the country. They should immediately be put right back across the border. We shouldn’t have to fly ’em to Haiti. They should just go back to wherever they set foot in from from that country, send them all back, every one of them. And then at the same time, let’s have more worker programs. Let’s have work permits for people. Let’s try to allow people who come here legally to progress on to citizenship. But we can’t have an open border. It’s a complete disaster and it’s getting worse.