McConnell, Paul Shutdown Talk Caught on Hot Mic

'We're gonna win this,' Paul says
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 3, 2013 1:18 PM CDT

"We're gonna win this." That's Rand Paul's assessment of the politics surrounding the government shutdown, as related to Mitch McConnell in what the two apparently thought was a private strategy chat. In a moment caught on tape by Kentucky's WPSD 6, Paul approaches McConnell just as the Senate minority leader prepared to do a TV interview. "I'm all wired up here," McConnell said, but Paul launched into his assessment anyway, apparently under the impression that all would be well if he spoke softly into the mic.

"I just did CNN and I just go over and over again, 'We're willing to compromise, we're willing to negotiate,'" Paul said. "I don't think they poll-tested, 'We won't negotiate.' I think it's awful for them to say that over and over again." McConnell agrees. "I just came back from that two-hour meeting with them," he said, "and that was basically the same view privately as it was publicly." Paul's conclusion is that as long as Democrats say they won't negotiate, and the GOP says it will, "We're gonna win this, I think." (More Mitch McConnell stories.)

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