| Natalie Finn 9. April 2015 – 18:23
For someone so concerned about civil liberties, Rand Paul isn’t exactly one for free speech.
At least when it comes to a couple of journalists who’ve tried to ask the newly declared GOP presidential candidate any questions recently!
While it took about 3 seconds to find on YouTube after the fact, his ungentlemanly sit-down with Today co-anchor Savannah Guthrie yesterday prompted the resurfacing (thanks Policy.Mic and Mediaite) of this gem, during which the Kentucky senator actual shushed CNBC’s Kelly Evans while she was interviewing him on Feb. 2.
Red-hot Republicans
While discussing federal budget matters via satellite, Evans did try to interject while Paul was talking, prompting him to wave his hand at her and insist, “hey, hey, let me finish, hey Kelly…”
Fair enough.
But just as she was grinning amiably and saying, “I’m sorry, go ahead,” he shushed her. As in raised his finger to his lips and went “shhh.” She laughed, but…
Ugh?
“Quiet, calm down a bit here, Kelly,” he continued. “Let me answer the question. The whole point of this legislation…”
Etc. The interview continued for another six minutes, great, but then concluded with Paul advising Evans on how to conduct a better interview next time, in a similar fashion to how he would later give Guthrie a few pointers that won’t be forgotten anytime soon.
Asked by Evans at the time about the possibility of him declaring his intent to run for president in 2016, Paul replied with, “We’re thinking about it and looking around the United States to see if the message resonates. Part of the problem is, is that you end up having interviews like this where the interview is so slanted and full of distortions that you don’t get useful information. I think that’s what’s bad about TV sometimes, so frankly I think, if we do this again, you need to try to start out with a little more objectivity going into the interview.”
“I will certainly try my best, Senator,” Evans replied, the smile long gone. “We hope you will come back and give us that chance.
Watch the whole thing right here and see for yourself if you think the interview was “slanted and full of distortions,” but otherwise the shush is at around 3:10 and the scolding comes at 8:45.
(E! Online and CNBC are both members of the NBCUniversal family.)
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