During an at-times-testy interview on CNN Monday, Ron Paul dismissed questions about the viability of his presidential campaign as “silly” and said he wouldn’t “throw in the towel” in the fight for the GOP nomination.

CNN host Piers Morgan told Paul he thought “the situation is looking pretty terminal” for his chances to become the GOP nominee, and asked why he didn’t “just do the decent thing and pull out.”

Paul blasted back, calling Morgan’s line of questioning “silly.”

“Why don’t you do the decent thing and not pester me with silly questions like that? I mean, that would be decent of you,” Paul said.

The Texas congressman went on to say that single-digit poll numbers did not concern him because he was in the hunt for delegates.
“You know, whether it’s up in Maine — or right now we’re doing very well in the state of Washington and North Dakota and excellent now in Nevada. And even Missouri the other day, some really good news came out there for us,” Paul said. “Through the process, our people are in the right places. They’re doing the things to become a delegate. So it’s way too soon for you to write anybody off.”

The Republican dark horse went on to defend his position in the race as a valuable check on the presumptive front-runner.

“Besides, just because somebody is in second or third place and — but there’s a race going on. What if Mitt Romney isn’t the best person?” Paul asked. “Why should we just throw in the towel because people like you say, ‘Hey, throw in the towel; people don’t want you out there wanting to debate the war and wanting to debate the Federal Reserve and wanting to debate this civil liberties, you know, assassination on American citizens, the military arresting Americans’?”

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