This is a rush transcript from "Your World With Neil Cavuto," May 10, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
NEIL CAVUTO, ANCHOR: Bennett bucked, Republicans rocked? Tea Party candidates just shooting Utah Senator Bob Bennett from the party’s GOP primary.
Good news for my next guest? Well, he’s the Tea Party guy running for Senate in Kentucky, which holds its big primary next week. Right now, he’s leading the establishment candidate, Trey Grayson, in the polls.
By the way, Mr. Grayson will be with us tomorrow, part of our fair and balanced campaign here.
With us now, Dr. Rand Paul, the Republican Congressman Ron Paul’s son.
Rand, good to have you.
RAND PAUL R-KY. SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: Good to be with you, Neil.
CAVUTO: What do you make of what happened in Utah? You take a senator like Bennett, very conservative, by and large, maybe not on the issues that Tea Partiers cared about, like supporting TARP and that sort of thing. But that did him in.
Is it getting to be a litmus test, and could it hurt the whole Tea Party movement if they divide and conquer conservatives who you would think are closer to their line of thinking?
PAUL: I have been saying for months that there’s a Tea Party tidal wave coming and it’s going to sweep a lot of incumbents from office. I would say it got to Utah before it got to Kentucky, but it’s coming to Kentucky, too.
It’s about the issues. It’s about the bank bailout. We, as Republicans, don’t believe in bailing out failed businesses, much less having the government own these businesses.
There was nothing in the bank bailout that’s consistent with the Republican platform. And the people who voted for it need to know that. In my state, 90 percent of Republican primary voters were opposed to the bailout. It’s inconsistent with Republican philosophy. And the Tea Party is coming.
We’re about that. We’re about doing something about the debt, getting rid of pork barrel spending.
CAVUTO: Right.
PAUL: And we’re also about reform, reforming Congress. Make them read the bills, for goodness’ sakes.
CAVUTO: Well, let’s say, in so doing, pass the Republican primary, whatever, now you’re in a general election, and — and — and you look at — at Charlie Crist in Florida, leaves the Republican Party to run as a third-party candidate.
And the guy he trailed by 30 points, Marco Rubio, he now leads by six points. And, so, Tea Partiers, who actively supported Marco Rubio, might up getting their win regardless. It’s still very early. But you see my point, that it might be a divide-and-conquer kind of a strategy that benefits liberals?
PAUL: Well, I don’t see that. I see that the issues that the Tea Party represents, things like term limits, a balanced budget amendment, read the bills, point out where the bills are — or have constitutional authority, an enumerated powers act, things like this are popular across party lines.
You know, you look at term limits, you poll term limits, 70, 80 percent of Republicans or Democrats are for it. The Tea Party also says that we want Congress to vote on bills and make those bills applicable to themselves.
It is arrogant — and people see this arrogance — that Washington will pass bills, and then Congress will exempt themselves from those bills. That’s what the Tea Party is about, and it’s a bipartisan chastisement to say, look, Washington, you have done a crummy job with the deficit. And we’re worried. We’re worried that the deficit will consume our nation.
CAVUTO: Can that Tea Party rage or populist sentiment last until November?
I mean, the fear that I have heard expressed by some Tea Party members is that, among some of their members, it won’t, and — and that this power and — and influence that has clearly grown — and I have covered them over this last year-and-a-half — will dissipate, and they won’t be the force they think they are.
PAUL: I think November is the culmination of this. Everybody is looking for an election where they can do something and participate.
But, all across Kentucky, the biggest rallies I have been to have not been Republican rallies. They have been Tea Party rallies. We had 3,000 or 4,000 people gather in Louisville for a Tea Party. We have had over 1,000 in Lexington, over 1,000 in Paducah, big crowds.
And the Tea Party amendment is what I give credit for — for myself. We have run an election where I have never run for office before, never held office, and yet the handpicked establishment candidate is now trailing us by over 10 points.
CAVUTO: Well, you’re hardly an unknown name.
(LAUGHTER)
PAUL: Well, it’s helped a lot...
CAVUTO: OK.
PAUL: ...because we have raised a lot of money. And I’m also in all of my ads, and I’m also in all my opponent’s ads, because he’s been attacking me for three months.
CAVUTO: All right.
PAUL: So, now my name recognition is probably higher than anybody in the race.
CAVUTO: All right, Rand Paul, thank you very much.
PAUL: Thank you, Neil.
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