Rand Paul: GOP needs to care about more than gun rights
The Republican Party needs to prove it values rights like freedom of speech and the right to a speedy trial as much as it values gun rights, Rand Paul said Friday.
"We do a great job defending the Second Amendment, and everybody knows that," the Kentucky senator and potential presidential candidate said at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). "But we have to defend the whole Bill of Rights."
"To defend the Second amendment, you have to defend the Fourth Amendment," he continued. "You need the First Amendment to protect the Second Amendment... The Fifth, the Sixth -- we should have speedy trials in our country."
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Paul cited the case of Kalief Browder, an African-American teenager accused of a crime who spent three years in jail without even getting a trial. While behind bars, he tried to commit suicide several times.
Browder "lives in that 'other America' that Martin Luther King talked about," Paul said.
If the GOP wants to appeal to minorities and other voters beyond its core conservative base, he said, it must defend the entire Bill of Rights. The party should make the case that "big government's not only a problem as far as regulation and taxes... [but also] with sometimes not giving justice to those who deserve it."
Paul, the most libertarian-leaning of the potential GOP 2016 candidates, has long stressed the need for the party to expand its appeal. At CPAC, Paul also defended his non-interventionist foreign policy positions. He argued that the U.S. should be less involved in foreign affairs in order to build up a stronger defense.
"When I look at government, I think the most important thing we do at the federal level is defend our country, without question," he stressed. "I envision an America with a national defense unparalleled... and unencumbered by nation building."
