Appearing on Brian Kilmeade's radio show on Wednesday, Kentucky senator and Republican presidential hopeful Rand Paul said he will not accept being relegated to the second tier in next month's Fox News debate.

"I will not participate in any kind of second tier debate. We have a first tier campaign," Paul said, telling Kilmeade about the number of campaign chairs he has and the amount of money he has raised.

"I am not going to let any network or anybody tell me we are not a first tier campaign," Paul said.

Paul went on to say that allowing the media to pick and choose which candidates get to be on the big stage and which do not will only benefit Donald Trump.

"I'm the only one on the stage that will challenge him. The others are all afraid of him," Paul said.

Paul also questioned the wisdom of using polls to decide which campaign gets to be on the big stage, pointing out the wild swings in support for candidates such as Ben Carson and Ted Cruz. According to Paul, money raised and the ability to show there is an organization on the ground should also be considered.