Sen. Rand Paul on Tuesday bucked his fellow Republicans and withheld his endorsement of Donald Trump — for now.
“I'm looking for a little bit more before I make a final decision. I'm supportive of Donald Trump, but whether or not I take an active role, endorse, and go out and campaign for him is something that's yet to be determined,” the Kentucky Republican said in an interview with Spectrum News 1 reporter Erin Kelly.
The comments from Paul, who at times swims away from the usual Republican Party current, is particularly notable since the party has loudly rallied behind the presumptive GOP nominee for president in recent days, after a New York jury convicted Trump on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Another high-profile Republican, Maryland U.S. Senate candidate Larry Hogan, has been excoriated by members of his party after he tweeted, before the conviction was announced, that Americans should accept the verdict.
For his part, Paul stressed that he wanted Trump to back his priority issues.
“I think that it's important if he wants to get my vote and my support and wants me to be more active in this, that he's going to have to be more vocal on things like the lockdowns that I opposed, like the civil liberties abuses that I opposed, like the debt, which frankly has been bad under Republicans and Democrats,” Paul said.
