Kentucky senator on government shutdown deadline, troops being sent to Portland and more

(CBS, KYMA) - Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about the the possibility of a government shutdown.

He said he would support a plan to reduce spending and reduce deficit spending.

"I think both sides have to look at the proposals for spending and decide, you know, what is the best way forward for the country," Senator Paul added.

Brennan followed up by asking the senator if he thinks it is appropriate and illegal for the Executive Branch to carry out "the kind of mass firings that the budget director laid out in that memo this past week" should a government shutdown happen, and Paul responded saying:

"There's been several cases adjudicated now all the way to the Supreme Court, and the President seems to have won every one of them on his ability to hire and fire within the executive branch. And I think this is understandable, because in the executive branch if the president can't fire him, who can? and so I think the President has a great out...Over executive branch employees for hiring and firing people in the executive branch? I think he has a great deal of leeway. The court has upheld this repeatedly, and so I suspect they will, even when Congress, you know, the Democrats try to protect this agency called the Consumer Financial Protection Board, and they say, well, the funding will come from the Fed. You won't get to vote on the funding, and the person hired can't be fired. Well, he did fire that person in 2020 and the courts upheld that in 2021, in the Supreme Court, and really since then, every case he has won. And as you know, I'm a equal parts critic of both Republicans and Democrats. I've criticized Trump on things, but the one thing is on the hiring and firing. I think he's going to win every one of those cases."

During the interview, Brennan and Paul talked about President Donald Trump's plan to send troops to Portland, Oregon, to which he said President Trump has the "legal authority" to send troops, but it's "better when the states agree to it."

This lead Brennan to ask the senator if he was comfortable with pushing the limits of some of the uses of potentially troops or federal agents after Oregon Governor Tina Kotek said there's no need and they don't want troops in the state while Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said, "Federal agents have been arriving along with some armored vehicles."

"I think both the people in Portland and across America have to decide about this. You know, we had anarchy in Portland for like, six months or a year. The city didn't even control large swaths of the city. These had federal buildings on them, and so I think there is a role for the federal government. Am I excited about it? No. I'd prefer not to have troops in our cities, or I'd prefer them only to come, you know, with the acceptance of the local authorities. But I do think there is a role if the states will not step up. Portland did not step up, and they let their city go, you know, they let it burn for goodness sakes, and then they let a whole area become the city, you know, these blocks of anarchy where some sort of local thug rule was going on. So I don't know, I think ultimately what's going to happen. And I think some of this is the President showing the politics of Republicans versus Democrats is eventually cities like Chicago and Portland are going to give up on Democrats because their people are dying. It's their people in their community. The people have been supporting the Democrat party for decade after decade. They are the ones dying. It's not the people in the rich neighborhoods that are country club Republican, it's the poor people in every city is dying. Well, you know the cities have to step up on this."

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)

Later in the interview, Brennan and Paul talked about domestic terrorist groups and the police respecting the amendments, to which he said, "They have to respect the Fourth Amendment, the First Amendment, and so we have to be careful with labels, but it doesn't mean we should go soft on Antifa and these people that are committing violence."

To watch more of Brennan's interview with Paul, click here.