When Rand Paul launched his presidential bid in early April amid an array of diverse faces, he talked about focusing on the inner cities and the other America, a place where “people experience a daily ugliness that dashes hope and leaves only the fatigue of despair.”
But three weeks into a campaign where he’s promised to broaden the GOP’s base of support in some of those places, he’s missed critical opportunities to change the party’s dialogue with minority communities.
On Tuesday, as Baltimore burned in the wake of the latest episode surrounding the alleged use of deadly excessive force, Paul’s response was notably off-key.
“I came through the train on Baltimore last night,” Paul told host Laura Ingraham. “I’m glad the train didn’t stop.”
The senator’s breezy response came just before he blamed the violent uprising there on “the breakdown of the family structure, the lack of fathers, the lack of sort of a moral code in our society.”
He also expressed his sympathy for “the plight of police,” all without speaking to the circumstances surrounding the troubling death of Freddie Gray in the custody of Baltimore Police.
His camp now acknowledges the lost chance.
Read more:
How Rand Paul blew it on Baltimore