The Fix: No, Rand Paul didnt storm out of an interview

Rand Paul gave an interview to the Guardian's Paul Lewis on Friday about criminal justice ... and abruptly walked off when Lewis tried asking an additional question. Here's video of the end of that interview, so you can see for yourself (the full video is also available now on Lewis' Periscope account):

You'll notice that both Paul and Lewis agreed to one more question, and Paul left when Lewis asked a second "last question." But that Paulwalked off quickly and that the lights were turned off madeit lookthat he leftin the middle of it. Optics!

Then, 40 minutes after the interview, Paul's campaign tweeted that CNN staff and not his own had turned the lights out. Crisis averted.

In the short life of his 2016 presidential campaign, Paul has already had several run ins with the media, and although that might endear him to some conservative voters,it's certainlybeen a somewhat-odd performance.

Paul has frequently seemed annoyed by questions he gets or at least not agreedwith the premise of them, which is fine for him to express. But the problem comes in hisdelivery; the shushing and the talking-over and the walking out abruptly doesn't do him any favors. His tweet might have diffused the micro-controversy, but a "thanks for your questions, but I have to go to my next interview," would have gone a long way. Just saying.

And forhow much Paul seems to dislike the media right now, he is showing no signs of scaling back his interview schedule. So there's likely to be more to come.

Hunter Schwarz covers the intersection of politics and pop culture for the Washington Post

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The Fix: No, Rand Paul didnt storm out of an interview

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