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Story highlights Paul has been leading the fight in Congress to pull federal funding for Planned Parenthood Paul also touched upon his foreign policy views and Donald Trump

"I support any legislation that will defund Planned Parenthood. But I don't think you start out with your objective to shut down government," Paul told CNN's Jake Tapper in an interview aired Sunday on "State of the Union."

Paul introduced a bill to defund Planned Parenthood this week after the release of videos that accuse the nonprofit of selling fetal tissue.

The number of lawmakers calling for the government to stop giving hundreds of millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood is growing. On Thursday, 18 lawmakers sent a letter to Republican leadership calling for the organization's funding to be tied to spending legislation and vowed not to support any spending bill until the nonprofit no longer receives government funds.

"I mean if President Obama wants to shut down government because he doesn't get funds for Planned Parenthood, that would be President Obama's determination to shut down government," Paul told Tapper.

But with many Americans expressing concern about Planned Parenthood's practices, Paul said the group should no longer receive taxpayer dollars.

"A lot of people, even a lot of pro-choice people, are upset by these videos," Paul said. "I think most Americans don't want their tax dollars going to this. So I think when something is so morally repugnant to so many people, why should tax dollars go to this?"

Paul said funding currently going to Planned Parenthood should go to 9,000 community health centers "that do everything that Planned Parenthood does, but they don't get into abortions."

"I do support a role for government in community health centers. The specific bill, including it in Obamacare, obviously, would make it such that I can't support that particular bill," he said. "But supporting some funding for community health centers, I think, is reasonable. And there are people who do need help."

Paul also touched upon his foreign policy views, which have been criticized by Republicans who frequently call him weak on fighting ISIS. The senator fired back, saying many of his opponents supported the U.S. military entering conflicts that he said have actually helped terrorists.

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Rand Paul: Shutdown not the goal

Story highlights The most recent national poll conducted by Quinnipiac University found that Trump was well ahead of others in the 16-person field Paul took a longer view of the race and, like many Republicans, ultimately dismissed Trump

"Television works, Wolf," Paul told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "If you would give some other candidates time from eight in the morning to eight at night all day long for three weeks, I'm guessing some other candidates might rise as well."

The most recent national poll conducted by Quinnipiac University found that Trump was well ahead of others in the 16-person field, with 20% support. Paul is jammed in with the second tier of Republican candidates earning between 4% and 6% support.

Blitzer asked Paul why his support was lagging right now. Paul immediately blamed the free airtime Trump was getting.

RELATED: GOP top tier breaking away, led by Donald Trump, poll finds

"So, for example, while some people are hearing about one candidate all the time, very few people know I've offered a tax code, that you could fill out your taxes on one page (at) 14.5%," Paul said. "So if I had a billion dollars' worth of advertising and every network going gaga over that, I think we could get our (poll numbers) to rise also."

But Paul took a longer view of the race and, like many Republicans, ultimately dismissed Trump.

"But there's going to be time for that," Paul said. "I think this is a temporary loss of sanity, but we're gonna come back to our senses and look for somebody to lead our country at some point."

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Rand Paul: Media to blame for Donald Trump's surge in polls

Rand Paul, once seen as a top-tier contender, finds his presidential hopes fading fast as he grapples with deep fundraising and organizational problems that have left his campaign badly hobbled.

Interviews with more than a dozen sources close to the Kentucky senator, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity, painted a picture of an underfunded and understaffed campaign beaten down by low morale.

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They described an operation that pitted a cerebral chief strategist against an intense campaign manager who once got into a physical altercation with the candidates bodyguard. And they portrayed an undisciplined politician who wasnt willing to do what it took to win a man who obsessed over trivial matters like flight times, peppered aides with demands for more time off from campaigning and once chose to go on a spring-break jaunt rather than woo a powerful donor.

They sketched a portrait of a candidate who, as he fell further behind in polls, no longer seemed able to break through. Paul, lionized as the most interesting man in politics in a Time magazine cover story last year, was supposed to reinvent the Republican Party with his message of free-market libertarianism, his vision of a restrained foreign policy and his outreach to minorities.

Instead, he has been overshadowed by louder voices like Donald Trumps and better-funded figures like Jeb Bush. His theory of the 2016 primary that Republican voters would reward a candidate who promised fresh ideas and an unconventional approach has not been borne out in reality.

At Pauls campaign headquarters on Capitol Hill, morale has begun to sink. At least one key aide recently departed, and others have had conversations with rival campaigns.

Its such a negative environment, said one Paul aide. Everyone is on edge, and no one is having any fun. They need to recapture some of their positive mojo, and fast.

***

Easily the biggest problem confronting Paul is his fundraising or lack thereof. Paul has taken in just $13 million, a fraction of what all of his major rivals for the Republican nomination have raised and far less than Paul hoped.

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Rand Paul 2016: Inside his campaign's downward spiral ...

This story has been updated.

Matthew Pagano might have found the perfect summer job. It helped to have the right resume: Pagano, 27, got his start at Young Americans for Liberty in central Florida. He left that organization, founded by former Texas congressman Ron Paul, to join Paul's presidential campaign. From there he moved from campaign to campaign, part of a generation of libertarian-minded politicos inspired by Paul and his son, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). And last month, Pagano became one of 40 full-time organizers in Iowa, working to elect Paul, for $4000 per month.

But Pagano's job isn't with the Paul campaign. It's with Concerned American Voters, a super PAC recently refurbished by YAL president Jeff Frazee and former FreedomWorks president Matt Kibbe, with the explicit goal of winning Iowa for Paul. On Wednesday, the super PAC will announce that it raised $2 million in just a month of existence, despite some static with Paul's preferred America's Liberty PAC. Organizers like Pagano are trying to build a powerful network even before the Paul campaign can execute its plans.

"The main thing is build up a list of defined Rand supporters, and to gather ID on Republicans for the caucuses," Pagano said. "It's a campaign job. You put in 10-hour days, seven days a week. I've been everywhere from Orange City to the Missouri border."

The strategy of Concerned American Voters -- and its complication for the main Paul campaign -- was borne out in this month's FEC reports. While the super PAC cannot coordinate with Paul, it could in theory communicate with America's Liberty PAC. There had been hope of jointly releasing the AL and CAV numbers this week, to reveal a total of $5.1 million in outside money for Paul. Instead, CAV's totals are coming after a spate of negative stories based on what National Journal called "the smallest sum of the 10 Republican super PACs to reveal their fundraising figures so far."

Concerned American Voters is trying to open the wallets of donors who might find those stories... well, concerning. Its FEC report will reveal a donation from Silicon Valley angel investor Scott Banister. Whole Foods founder John Mackey has also reportedly chipped in. Donors are told that Concerned American Voters will avoid any media spending, and use tactics pioneered by insurgent Republican campaigns to wire Iowa in advance of the caucuses. They also assure donors that they will not waste effort on contacting voters already won over by the Paul campaign.

"Theres no such thing as too much grassroots," said Kibbe. "When I was in Nevada for [the annual libertarian conference] Freedomfest I was literally inundated by activists who wanted to help Rand.Im not getting any concerns that Rand isnt worth investing in. I think they want to see the roadmap to victory, andRand is a great field test for the new rules of politics. The old rules were about name ID, about how much money you could raise for establishment bundlers. Insurgent candidates don't need all of that."

The official Paul campaign had not really celebrated the launch of Concerned American Voters. One more super PAC looked, on the surface, like one more place for donors to park money outside of the preferred Paul network. That was before the aligned campaigns for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wis.), who also have Iowa in their sights, raised significantly more money. The rebel PAC is now promising to out-organize everyone in the state, with other change to Paul's strategy or messaging. In the last weeks, the ice between official Paulworld and alternative Paulworld has thawed.

"Matt Kibbe and Jeff Frazee have a proven track record in grassroots activism," Paul said in a statement Wednesday. "I have known them both for many years and have always been impressed with their work and their enthusiasm for shared message. Their organization, along with others already working on the outside, will be a great asset in delivering the message of liberty on the ground and online."

Correction: This post originally incorrectly attributed Paul's statement to spokesman Sergio Gor.

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In Iowa, Rand Pauls unofficial army plans to win the ...

CHARLESTON, S.C. As Congress races toward its long summer recess, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is confident that hell get a vote to bar any taxpayer funds going to Planned Parenthood.

Theres a nationwide movement that weve been leading, Paul said in an interview, after participating in a town hall with military veterans. We will probably send a million emails out on this subject. I think by motivating the grassroots, theres a very good chance well get a vote on this.

Pauls confidence came just a day after a special Sunday session of the Senate seemed to put the lid on any wishlist conservative amendment. July has been a most cruel month for that sort of thing, and especially cruel to Pauls presidential rival Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). After Cruz accused Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of a flat-out lie to save the Export-Import Bank from phasing out, he watched colleagues line up against him and with the leader.

For Republicans, the politics of abortion are far less fraught than the politics of a New Deal-era investment bank thats backed by the Chamber of Commerce. The release of undercover interviews with Planned Parenthood executives, in which they antiseptically discuss the sale of fetal body parts, has elevated the cause of defunding the group. And Paul has a much better relationship than Cruz with McConnell, his state's senior senator.

Paul said he didn't think his amendment would happen on the highway bill, but that he'd submitted a discharge petition that is a separate request for a new bill. "I think theres a very good chance thats going to happen, he said.

Planned Parenthoods defenders have accused Republicans of misrepresenting what the organization does, pointing out that it is illegal for taxpayer funds to pay for abortion. Paul said it was unclear whether the law was being followed.

I think it should be investigated, he said. The problem here really is not just whether its illegal to buy and sell the organs, but whether the taxpayer dollars should be going to a group that is sort of manipulating and turning the baby around to get access to organs. I think most people were horrified by them.

That raised another question: Whether it should be legal, at all, for the bodies of aborted fetuses to be sold for science. I think that there should not be any financial incentives to get an abortion, said Paul. Now, they would argue that it just covers the cost, but any time money changes hands even if its to a nonprofit group that is a real question. Really, we probably shouldnt be doing research on these babies, because you would hate to think there is any kind of incentive for that to occur.

"Donating tissue when you die is an incredibly noble thing. Ive worked with donated corneas to give people back vision. But this baby really didnt have a choice. Some people are horrified by the idea of having factories where youd grow babies for their body parts. Will technology allow that? Technology probably almost already does allow that. But should a civilized society allow that? I dont think so, he said.

The battle to defund Planned Parenthood has become a major focus of Americas anti-abortion movement. Paul said he did not see the need to go further and challenge Title X funding for family planning.

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Rand Paul says the GOP can defund Planned Parenthood ...