Conservative Editor Bill Kristol on Rand Paul: He's Just 'Too Old

"I'm all for having younger candidates, and I just think Rand Paul is too old."

(Credit: Gage Skidmore / CC BY 3.0)

Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol has made no secret of his displeasure with Kentucky Senator Rand Paul's ascendancy within the Republican Party with the more libertarian-oriented "new guard."

On Monday, Kristol was asked about Paul's recent speech at the Conservative Political Action Committee, where he hit back against the so-called "old guard" of which Kristol would be considered a member.

Kristol stated, laughing towards the end:

I'm not defending the old school, I'm a reformer. I'm very much for younger candidates. I'm for people who are younger than Rand Paul. Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, and Tom Cotton, who are all national security hawks, are younger than Rand Paul. So Rand -- I'm all for having younger candidates, and I just think Rand Paul is too old.

Kristol proceeded to discuss Paul's roughly 13-hour filibuster on the floor of the Senate, where he ceaselessly sought clarification on a letter from Attorney General Eric Holder that didn't rule out the possibility of domestic drone strikes on non-combatant American citizens.

"Look, I admire his political entrepreneurship. I wish more Republicans showed the spunk, the verve, the nerve that Rand Paul showed," Kristol stated. "But you can't just take the position that any kind of fight against Obama's great and, hey, if you embarrass him, that's great...you've got to look at the substance of the position."

Watch the entire segment, via Mediaite, below (skip to around 2:35):

(H/T: Gateway Pundit)