Rand Paul: Harry Reid, Democrats are afraid

Rand Paul: Reid, Democrats are afraid

Senator says don't blame Republicans solely for the impasse in Washington. Plus, why Sen. Paul walked away from a 'DREAMER'

This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," August 5, 2014. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Do you want to know who is to blame for the Washington gridlock? Senator Rand Paul says he knows.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAND PAUL, R-KY: The Senate of Washington is run by Harry Reid. Republicans get nothing. No ideas. You're not a representative of the U.S. Senate. Even though you have a great Senator, in Senator Grassley, he doesn't get any ideas into law right now. None. Zero. Why? Because they're afraid. They're afraid of having your vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAN SUSTEREN: Right now, Senator Rand Paul is in Iowa. He's pulled over on the side of the road and he's joining us from a cornfield.

Nice to see you, Senator.

PAUL: Hi, Greta. Thanks for having me.

VAN SUSTEREN: Senator, you say the gridlock, you say it is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. I should note, I read over the weekend, "The New York Times" says Harry Reid is not putting bills on the floor for political reasons. Apparently, they agree with you on that. But why do the Democratic Senators not want to vote? They can win. They've got the numbers on all the votes.

PAUL: Well, they can win electorally, you know, in the Senate, but they're worried about the election, and they're worry that the people won't like the way they're voting, which sound a little bit like, you know, they're really embarrassed of their philosophy.

But really for about a year, they have given up on voting in the Senate. Nothing really of substance has happened in a year, maybe two years. They don't allow any amendments from Republicans. They don't want the give-and- take or any kind of bipartisanship because they're petrified that Republicans might have them vote on a gun issue or some kind of issue that southern Democrats don't want to vote on.

VAN SUSTEREN: Do you get no sense that Senator Harry Reid has any sort of guilty conscience in the sense that, at least -- things should be voted on as part of a democracy, whether you're for things or against things? It's all about winning with him?

PAUL: To me, it's disappointing because I've actually tried to work with the Democrats on several issues, criminal justice reform, lowering the taxes on money coming home from overseas. I've tried very hard overseas. I've tried hard to find ground with the Democrats on these issues, and yet, they won't allow any votes. But how do we make progress if we don't have any votes?

VAN SUSTEREN: I don't know. I read a couple of articles today, Senator, saying that you have said you have never voted to cut any aid to Israel, and now you're saying that that's untrue. What is it? You voted to cut aid to Israel sometime, or you wanted to, or you have not?

PAUL: Yeah. Well, I've never targeted Israel for any aid cuts, never voted to cut any aid to Israel. And the interesting thing is I spent the last two months trying to cut aid to Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, and people seem to be trying to create their own story here. But I've been on the Senate floor three times in the last two weeks challenging the Democrats to say, you know what, Hamas should not get any foreign aid. That's the real story here. Anything else really that's being brought up is someone trying to create a story.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. Well, I know that you voted last week for the $225 million for the Iron Dome for Israel. But let me just make my question more precise. Did you ever try to get a vote on an amendment to deny aid in any way to Israel?

PAUL: No. And I think it's misinterpreted. I've had votes and budgets that would have reduced overall foreign aid. Some people have interpreted it, saying this is to deny aid to Israel, when, in fact, my inclination and my propositions have always been to strengthen our ties to Israel. So really people misinterpret it. I think foreign aid -- we don't have enough money to continue foreign aid to everyone all the time. But I've said repeatedly, I think we ought to start with the countries that are burning our flag, the countries who hate us. I've been to Israel. I don't see anybody there burning our flag. So really, I'm for slowing down the aid, saying we don't have enough, attaching conditions, making sure Hamas never gets any aid. All I'm asking is for some of these outlets that are unfriendly outlets, that they would report the truth, that I have spent a lot of time trying to reduce aid to Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. And if they report otherwise, they're reporting something truly not accurate.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, there's no question you're in Iowa. That beautiful cornfield behind you. And there's a video that's gone somewhat viral among the media, at least, in which you're sitting, having lunch with Congressman King, and suddenly some young person comes up to him and says the person's a DREAMER and engages in sort of a controversial conversation with Congressman King about being a DREAMER. You shake the hand and then you're seen getting up after you have a bite of your hamburger and then getting your drink, as though you're tying to get away. What's the explanation for this video?

PAUL: Now you know my life. You know my life on the campaign trail. But about five minutes before that, or two minutes before that, the video doesn't show that another reporter came up and said, will you do an interview. And I said, I need to take a couple more bites and we'll do an interview. And then I was told we had to leave and I had to do the interview, so actually, I stood 10 feet from the people who were doing sort of a kamikaze interview, and I stood 10 feet from them and did another interview. You know me. I've always done an interview on immigration. I'm very open to discussing that I think there should be some kind of immigration reform. But I don't think you can do it without first securing the border, and that's the problem with the president doing this unlawfully. The president doing this on his own act, oh I will make this choice because people will not act, and saying using his pen and a phone. I'm very much opposed to the president making a policy instead of saying Congress makes the laws. He gets to sign them.

VAN SUSTEREN: Senator, nice to see you in that beautiful state of Iowa behind you. I love Iowa. Enjoy Iowa. Thank you, sir.

PAUL: Thank you, Greta.