screenshot via FOX
Senator Rand Paul speakings on "On the Record."
A widely-circulated video emerged on Tuesday showing Paul bolting from a table with Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa) after self-proclaimed "DREAMers" confronted King. Paul appeared to only have one or two bites from a hamburger in front of him before leaving.
Paul, a potential Republican presidential contender, subsequently addressed the incident during an appearance on Fox's "On the Record." According to Paul, his departure from the activists' "kamikaze interview" was a pure coincidence as he had already promised to give an interview to a reporter at the same time.
"Now you know my life. You know my life on the campaign trail. 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?' I said, 'I need to take a couple more bites and we'll do an interview.' And then I was told we need to leave," Paul said.
Paul, speaking from a cornfield in the key presidential primary state of Iowa, also said he has no problem discussing immigration reform.
"You know me. I've always been open to discussing immigration. I very open to discussing that I think there should be some kind of immigration reform. But I think that you can't do it without first securing the border," he said.