Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., speaks to Vermont Republicans. Video by Jasper Craven/VTDigger
[E]SSEX JUNCTION — Presidential hopeful Rand Paul says his staunch stance on the protection of civil liberties would set him apart in a crowded field — and would enable him to sweep more blue states than any other Republican primary candidate.
“I can get the youth to come out and say their cellphone data is theirs and the government shouldn’t be looking at it,” said Paul, a U.S. Republican senator from Kentucky. “I can get independents to come out and say ‘I do want a strong national defense, but I don’t want to bankrupt the country with a blank check for the military’.”
Paul made the remarks in a speech to 200 people at a Vermont GOP barbecue Monday night.
The Kentucky senator paid special attention to the Fourth Amendment guarantee of a right to privacy.
He spoke about the need to be vigilant about monitoring terrorist activity and at the same time criticized the ineffectiveness of federal spying programs, such as those conducted by the National Security Agency, which he said had not caught a single terrorist.
Paul said the federal government discriminates when it profiles terrorists. Red flags include people with missing fingers.
“Anybody every met a farmer who’s missing a finger?” Paul asked, to chuckles from the crowd. “Most of them were probably not terrorists.”
He also addressed criminal justice reform and the need for more isolationist foreign policies, ones he will likely reiterate on his upcoming visits to New Hampshire and Maine.
While the senator has racked up endorsements in New Hampshire, he isn’t polling well in the Granite State. Just 3 percent of voters recently surveyed by Public Policy Polling favored Paul.
Paul’s sharpest attacks were aimed at Democrat Hillary Clinton, and her handling of the attacks in Benghazi that left an American ambassador dead.
“My conclusion is that [Clinton’s] dereliction of duty, her not providing adequate security, should forever preclude her from holding higher office,” he said to a round of enthusiastic applause from the crowd.
Paul also attacked Donald Trump’s past support for Democratic proposals, saying “he’s hot and heavy and he’s angry, but what’s he really for?”
The money raised from ticket sales, which ranged in price from $65 to $2,000, will support the Vermont GOP.
Attendees said they were grateful that Paul visited Vermont at a time when most candidates focus exclusively on early primary states like New Hampshire and Iowa.
“We have to continue to listen, listen to each other,” Lt. Gov. Phil Scott said in a speech at the event. “That’s why it’s great to have Senator Paul here tonight — we don’t get presidential candidates coming to Vermont very often.”
Paul emphasized that the Republican Party needs to widen the conservative base, echoing remarks made earlier in the evening by Scott, who is flirting with a gubernatorial run in 2016.
“We are going to be a party so big, we are going to rock and roll the victory,” Paul said. “We are going to win blue states like Vermont. That’s what I want to be a part of, and I hope you do too.”
Scott stressed that the state’s Republican platform must offer incentives to entice young Vermonters to stay in the state and enhance the economy.
“We have to find ways to attract younger folks here into the party,” Scott said. “And I would say, looking around the room tonight, that we are seeing a change — a sea change.”
Paul received a standing ovation after his remarks, and he was given a jug of maple syrup in thanks from the state GOP. He then exited through the big barn doors of the Green Meadow Farm, to subsequent stops around New England.
Edward St. Louis, 54, of Jeffersonville, said he volunteered with his family in Maine for the 2008 presidential campaign of Ron Paul, Rand’s father. He said they all planned to vote for Rand, and were excited the senator made the trip to Vermont.
“He stands up for what he believes in, like when he filibustered for hours and hours,” St. Louis said. “He wants to do the right thing.”
Andrew Laramee, 75, who spends winters in Florida, said that while he respected the leadership from both Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio in the Sunshine State, he still wasn’t sure which candidate he would vote for.
“I like to hear them all, but there’s so many of them,” Laramee said. “But whoever wins the Republican nomination is who I’m going to vote for.”
