This is a rush transcript from "Your World," May 21, 2013. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Reaction to all this with Rand Paul. The senator from Kentucky joins us right now.
Senator, what do you think of the likelihood of these folks succeeding?
SEN. RAND PAUL, R-KY.: Well, you know, I think that we need to get to the bottom of this.
I'm not sure about how the lawsuits will proceed, but I think that in order for government to gain its trust back, someone needs to be fired, someone needs to be held responsible, and if it was criminal, someone needs to go to jail.
But I think it may take an independent investigation. So much confidence has been lost in government now through this that I don't know how they get their confidence back. And I don't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat or an independent.
CAVUTO: But is an independent investigation a special prosecutor? Now you have got Lois Lerner, who is not going to be testifying. She's going to be pleading the fifth. So do you need a prosecutor now all the more or what?
PAUL: Well, you know, if people are taking the fifth, how do you get the bottom -- how do you get to the bottom of this...
CAVUTO: Right.
PAUL: ... unless there is some kind of special investigation?
Also, someone needs to be fired. And it seems to be impossible to fire a government employee. Still, no one has been fired over Benghazi. They were transferred. We called them up today. They still all have phone numbers and offices.
That's the problem. People want government to be responsive. And if someone uses and abuses the power of government, they want that person kicked out of office.
CAVUTO: Senator, right now, most people don't like this IRS thing the most, of all the scandals that have been raised. But they have not attached much of it to the president as of yet. Do you think that will change?
PAUL: I think it depends on whether the president responds. He says he is outraged, and that's fine. But we want to see him do something. He needs to say, in a short period of time, that someone is going to be leaving, that -- the people responsible. He sort of says he is outraged, but like with Benghazi, his response was to transfer people around in the State Department and nobody lost their job.
So, really, someone has to be fired. Someone should be prosecuted if this is a criminal occurrence. But I don't think the president -- he has been kind of passive in all of this. He seems to be detached and he kind of wants to show outrage, but say, hey, I had nothing to do with it, I'm just the president.
I'm not sure that's going to fly with the public.
CAVUTO: All right, Senator Rand Paul, thank you very much.
It was his chief counsel to the president who didn't go ahead and tell him about this I.G. report linking the IRS to this focus on conservative groups.
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