Just 48 hours after winning the GOP nomination for Kentucky’s US Senate seat, candidate Rand Paul says he’s “insulted” by critics accusing him of being racist and against the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  Today, Rand Paul tried to set the record straight saying, “I think it’s interesting and I’m sort of insulted a little bit by the whole conversation.  I think we need to make that explicit. I’m not for repealing the Civil Rights Act.”

Paul’s comments raised eyebrows after he gave the following answer during an interview in Louisville with the Courier-Journal’s Editorial Board in April.

REPORTER: Would you have voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

PAUL: I like the Civil Rights Act in the sense that it ended discrimination in all public domains and I`m all in favor of that.

REPORTER: But?

PAUL: You had to ask me the “but.” I don’t like the idea of telling private business owners. I abhor racism. I think it’s a bad business decision to ever exclude anybody from your restaurant. But at the same time, I do believe in private ownership. But I think there should be absolutely no discrimination in anything that gets any public funding, and that’s mostly what the Civil Rights Act was about, to my mind.

Paul’s opponent in the Senate race, Democrat Jack Conway is now on the attack, calling Paul’s libertarian views “painful” to listen to. Conway told Fox News,  “he (Rand Paul) basically said that private business should not be required under the Civil Rights Act to serve people in non discriminatory fashion. That’s an issue that we settled nearly a half century ago and he’s essentially rejected a fundamental provision of the Civil Rights Act… Rand Paul seems to want to be the leader of a narrow and rigid philosophy.”

Today, Rand Paul responded to questions from Fox News Channel, trying to clarify what he meant once and for all.

“I’m not for repealing the Civil Rights Act. I do think that the federal government did have a role in ending institutional racism in the 50s and 60s. I think it was outrageous that we had segregation, we had separation of people and we didn’t allow people to go to schools.”

Paul says he does not condone racism in any way and has no intention of revisiting the Civil Rights Act. He says Democrats realize they are in a vulnerable position in the upcoming November election and are attacking him, by accusing him of things that are not true.

You can hear more from Rand Paul and his Democratic opponent, Jack Conway tonight at 6pmET on Special Report with Bret Baier.