Bob Schieffer to Rand Paul: Do Some In GOP Not Want to Be More Inclusive?

Newly declared Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul sat down with CBS’s Bob Schieffer on Sunday’s Face the Nation and was asked if some in the Republican Party do not want to be inclusive.

The soon-to-be retired Schieffer asked Paul: “Do you think there are some in the Republican Party who are not as interested in becoming more inclusive than you are? And I say that because after all, when the Republican Party became dominant across the south, it was right after the 1965 civil rights law was passed.”

For his part, Paul pushed back and noted how he has tried to reach out to African American communities that Republicans typically do not visit but once again Schieffer pressed his guest on whether “there are some in your party and however a larger segment that it would be that say we don't want to be more inclusive.”

Once again, the Tea Party favorite insisted that he was “not finding resistance” among Republicans about becoming more inclusive:

I think the party when I talk to people, every day, even people who are trying to defeat me in the nomination process, come up and say, oh yeah but we do like that you are trying to make the party bigger so I am not finding much objection from Republicans.   

This was not the first time Schieffer used the liberal line that the GOP has problems reaching out to minority communities. On January 4, Schieffer hosted former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich to discuss the controversy surrounding Congressman Steve Scalise.  

The CBS host suggested “Republicans going to have to find some way to appeal to Hispanics and African Americans and what is that way because I think you would agree right now if you just look at it, it doesn't look like they're doing very much.”

See relevant transcript below.

CBS’s Face the Nation

April 12, 2015

BOB SCHIEFFER: Do you think there are some in the Republican Party who are not as interested in becoming more inclusive than you are? And I say that because after all, when the Republican Party became dominant across the south, it was right after the 1965 civil rights law was passed. 

RAND PAUL: Right. I like to remember further back, in like 1928 when two-thirds of the African-American population voted Republican. It switched a lot in 32 but you are right it kept dwindling, dwindling, dwindling and we have not tried very hard, but I have been going, I have been to Ferguson, I have been to Detroit, I have been to Chicago, I have been to Milwaukee, I have been to a lot of our nation's bigger cities and I have tried to say to the African-American population, one, I am going to fix the criminal justice system, two, I believe in your privacy, and three I believe in economic opportunity. I’m for a billion dollars tax cut for Detroit to try to help them bail themselves out. 

SCHIEFFER: But do you think there are some in your party and however a larger segment that it would be that say we don't want to be more inclusive. 

PAUL: I don’t think so. I am not finding resistance. Like, you’re going to have Reince Priebus on here later today and I’ve worked with the Republican National Committee. When we opened the office in Detroit they were the ones in charge of opening the office and I was there helping them, so no, I think the party when I talk to people, every day, even people who are trying to defeat me in the nomination process, come up and say, oh yeah but we do like that you are trying to make the party bigger so I am not finding much objection from Republicans.