Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said Republicans who refuse to support President Donald Trump are focusing on “esoteric stuff about demeanor” instead of actual “policy.”
Paul’s criticism comes as former Republican Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake and more than two-dozen other former GOP lawmakers announced their support for the “Republicans for Biden” effort on Monday.
“When I find people that are upset with the president they sometimes don’t like his demeanor,” Paul told Fox News anchor Sandra Smith on Tuesday’s edition of “America’s Newsroom.” “They sometimes don’t like what he says on Twitter or this and that, and I say ‘well, what about the policy?'”
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“Because, you know, you have these Republicans all saying ‘no, we’re going to support Biden,’ but many of these Republicans voted with the president 90% of the time and would vote with Biden 10% of the time,” Paul continued. “That’s what counts is the issues. It shouldn’t count so much all of the esoteric stuff about demeanor.”
Paul touted Trump’s tax cuts, work on making healthcare affordable, and court picks as reasons Republicans should get past their personal differences with the president.
“And so the people who don’t like him and these never Trumpers, they’re paying attention only to this misconception on his personality and not necessarily what he’s actually done,” Paul concluded.
Earlier in the segment, the Kentucky senator drew from his own experiences with the president to push back against the “caricature” of Trump “painted from the left and the people who hate him.” (RELATED: Sen. Rand Paul Recalls The First Time He Met Trump During RNC Speech)
“They refuse to accept any of the fine qualities that I think he has,” he said.