Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) on Wednesday sharply denied that he has plans to stage a coup at the Republican National Convention in August.
“That is not in my plan, that is against my plan, I don’t like that even being a suggestion,” Paul told CNN.
Recent reports of Paul supporters
taking over state party conventions in order to shift delegates to Paul have raised concerns that Paul will divide the vote just at the time when Mitt Romney is looking to unify the party as the likely nominee. Paul has been able to pick up steam in several states as a result.
Paul is still running for the Republican nomination, despite a substantial gap between his delegate count and Romney’s. But Paul said he has “very precise goals” for his ongoing campaign: “To promote something that is very, very important, that is a change in the direction for the Republican party, that is to be a fiscally conservative Republican party, to not be a party that supports endless wars, and to look into the monetary system so that we can understand the business cycle.”
He added that he plans to maximize his delegates in order to magnify his agenda for at least the next month.
Paul did not close the door on an eventual endorsement of Romney as the nominee, but said it would be “pretty hard to reconcile the differences” between their positions.
“But who knows, these differences might not be as severe as they seem to be because the positions of other candidates have changed,” he added. His opponents on both sides of the aisle have accused Romney of being a “flip flopper,” changing positions for political expediency, but Paul seemed more interested in the potential to sway Romney to a more libertarian point of view.
Paul said he would need to know more about Romney’s stance on the Federal Reserve, fiscal policy and cutting spending.
Paul seemed befuddled when asked why former fellow GOP candidates Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich showed a notable lack of enthusiasm in their endorsements of Romney. Santorum waited a month and then sent his endorsement buried in a late-night email to supporters; Gingrich refused to leave the race long past his chance to challenge Romney expired and has suggested even since leaving that “Romney said things at times that weren’t true” during the campaign.
Paul said in response to questions that he could not answer for Santorum’s or Gingrich’s reasons. “Their views are fairly similar [to Romney’s]; it might be more personal than anything else,” he suggested.
