The national news media are to blame for Donald Trump's surge in the polls, said Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.
"Television works, Wolf,"
Paul told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "If you would give some other candidates time from 8 in the morning to 8 at night all day long for three weeks, I'm guessing some other candidates might rise as well."
A Quinnipiac poll out Thursday put Trump in a strong first place in the wide Republican field with 20 percent support, with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in a distant second with 13 percent. Paul had just 6 percent in the poll.
And a Reuters/IPSOS survey released Wednesday gave Trump a double-digit lead with 25 percent support compared to his nearest rival, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, at 12 percent.
Paul blamed his faltering status for the free airtime Trump was getting.
"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 percent,"
Paul told CNN. "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."
Paul, however, implied that the media's fascination with Trump would fade and that Trump's star would fall.
"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."