Rand Paul Wants to Revisit Civil Rights Act

Rand Paul, the newly minted Republican senate candidate from Kentucky, appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show on Wednesday to discuss his disagreement with the part of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that makes it illegal for private businesses to discriminate.

According to the Huffington Post, "Paul told Maddow that he agrees with most parts of the Civil Rights Act, except for one (Title II), that made it a crime for private businesses to discriminate against customers on the basis of race. Paul explained that had he been in office during debate of bill, he would have tried to change the legislation. He said that it stifled first amendment rights."

Watch the lengthy exchange between Paul and Maddow below.

The conversation stemmed from comments that Paul made to the editorial board of the Louisville Courier-Journal, which did not endorse him.

"I don't like the idea of telling private business owners -- I abhor racism," said Paul to the Courier-Journal. "I think it's a bad business decision to exclude anybody from your restaurant -- but, at the same time, I do believe in private ownership. But I absolutely think there should be no discrimination in anything that gets any public funding, and that's most of what I think the Civil Rights Act was about in my mind."

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