Paul hits Trump for praise of Dems

Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) campaign on Wednesday released a video highlighting fellow 2016 GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s past praise of Democrats.

{mosads}”In many cases I probably identify more as a Democrat,” Trump says during a 2004 clip included in the new two-minute Paul video. “It just seems that the economy does better under the Democrats than the Republicans.”

“Liberal on healthcare,” Trump says in another clip describing his views, adding, “we have to take care of people that are sick.”

Trump, who has for weeks stayed atop polls for the Republican presidential nomination, is also seen praising Hillary Clinton, now the Democratic presidential front-runner.

“Hillary Clinton, I think, is a terrific woman,” Trump says, noting he has known her and husband Bill Clinton “for years.”

The video, which is running as a digital advertisement through the weekend in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, is backed by a “substantial” ad buy, Paul’s campaign told The Hill.

Paul has gone after the celebrity real estate tycoon hard in recent days, hitting Trump as a “fake conservative” and a “bully” after also throwing barbs at him during last week’s Republican debate.

“Frankly, it sounds too much like he is someone used to bullying to get his way. What do you do to a bully? You stand up to him. That’s what I did on the debate stage, and I was the only one,” Paul wrote in an op-ed.

Trump called the senator a “spoiled brat” in a tweet on Monday following Paul’s broadside. Paul shot back on Tuesday, saying that “my two kids all work minimum-wage jobs. Do you think the Trump kids have been working at the local Pizza Hut?”

The businessman has repeatedly brushed aside questions about his previous donations and support of Democrats, saying he gave money to everyone as a businessman.

But that hasn’t stopped Paul, a libertarian-leaning lawmaker who has taken his anti-Trump message to the early-voting state of New Hampshire, where a poll this week found Trump leading the GOP pack.

Paul is campaigning for three days in the Granite State this week, ending Thursday. He is currently eighth in a 17-person GOP field that Trump leads, according to the Real Clear Politics average of national polls.

His new video was first reported by CNN.