Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul said Friday that the undercard Republican debate for lower polling candidates should be eliminated, as he once again faces not making the main stage.
"I'm not sure where the purpose is anymore, if there ever was one," Paul told Politico. "I think if you have a national campaign, you've raised a significant amount of money, you're on the ballot, you've employed staff and you're actively campaigning, you've got to be in the debate."
Paul, who made his comments ahead of the next GOP debate on Thursday in South Carolina, for which it is unclear if he qualifies, has barely made the main stage on the last two occasions. He had particularly sharp words for the attention that Republican front-runner Donald Trump receives.
"I think it's a mistake to pre-decide that Trump should get twice as much time on the stage," Paul said in the interview. "I think it should be somewhat equal. We ought to shuffle the positions because by basing everything on polls, we are pre-deciding the election."
Paul has repeatedly criticized the debate formats, saying last month that he would flat out refuse to participate in any of the undercard debates.
"I won't participate in any kind of second-tier debate," the Kentucky senator said on Fox Business, BuzzFeed reported. "We've got a first-tier campaign. I've got 800 precinct chairman in Iowa. I've got a 100 people on the ground working for me. I've raised 25 million dollars. I'm not gonna let any network or anybody tell me we're not a first-tier campaign. If you tell a campaign with three weeks to go that they're in the second-tier, you destroy the campaign. This isn't the job of the media to pick who wins. The voters ought to get a chance."
He added: "I frankly just won't be told by the media which tier I'm in, and we're not willing to accept that, because we're a first-tier campaign and we're in it to win it and we won't be told that we're in a tier that can't win."
On a national average of recent polling calculated byRealClear Politics, Paul is in seventh place, with 2.7 percent support.
