Ron Paul blasted former House Speaker Newt Gingrich for avoiding military service during the Vietnam War Thursday.
Paul said that his ads criticizing the former House Speaker as a "serial hypocrite" were fair game in an interview Thursday on Fox News.
Fox host Megyn Kelly asked Paul whether the ads, which he has been airing aggressively in Iowa, crossed the line in critiquing a fellow Republican as the two vie for the presidential nomination.
"Negative campaigning is calling people names, demagoguing issues … pointing out differences is my job," Paul said.
But, Paul said, there was another issue he "found annoying" — the graduate school deferment Gingrich received to avoid military service.
"He got several deferments, he chose not to go … now he'll send our kids," Paul said.
"I see that as important information," Paul added.
Paul was a flight surgeon for the Air Force and in the Air National Guard throughout the 1960s.
A PPP poll released earlier this week showing him within one point of Gingrich in Iowa and a spate of national polls showing regression for the former Speaker.
Paul said that he appealed to voters who recognized that neither party had addressed fundamental economic problems.
"I don't see Obama as the problem, I see the problem as the monetary system, the deficit that's been run up," Paul said. "When Republicans were in charge we didn't do such a great job, which is why the Independent movement is so strong."
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