Just after his supporters cheered his arrival at the Republican convention in Tampa Tuesday, Ron Paul declared on Fox News that he is not endorsing the Republican ticket, and has no plans to endorse Mitt Romney or anyone else for president.
“I haven’t endorsed the ticket,” Paul told Neil Cavuto. “I endorse the principles I’ve been talking about, a lot of times on your show, and you basically know what that is. I’m endorsing, you know, endorse peace, prosperity, individual liberty and the constitution. And I’m more intense on that than I am on the politics of that. So in a way, as I drift away from the political action I might even feel more comfortable.”
Paul entered the Tampa Bay Times Forum in Tampa clad in a colorful Hawaiian lei, as supporters cheered him on.
The convention has to some degree forced the Romney campaign to smooth over some of the tensions with Paul activists. His delegates agitated for a chance to formally nominate him on the floor for a fair roll call vote, and have protested the exclusion of Paul delegates from Maine, and there is an ongoing fight over a proposed rules change for future delegate selections.
Paul told Cavuto he would “probably vote, I’ve done that in the past,” and that it was “not too likely” he would vote for President Obama — laughing at the possibility. Cavuto asked whether Paul might vote for the Libertarian nominee, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson.
“Well, there’s always possibilities of everything, but I haven’t made up my mind. Put me down as undecided.”
Paul also told Cavuto that his supporters feel they’ve been treated “atrociously” — but he got it out of his system “because we had a grand rally on Sunday night.”
Evan McMorris-Santoro and Benjy Sarlin contributed to this report.
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