Mediaboss Marketing

Breaking with many Republican colleagues, the Kentucky senator Rand Paul has revealed his concern over Donald Trumps nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to replace Anthony Kennedy on the supreme court.

Paul told Fox and Friends on Sunday he was worried Kavanaugh, a judge on the DC circuit court of appeals, could cancel out supreme court justice Neil Gorsuchs vote on fourth amendment cases and allow the federal government to collect the phone records of millions of Americans.

Kavanaughs confirmation rests on a knife edge. Republicans hold a 51-49 advantage in the Senate. They need a simple majority or a tie broken by Vice-President Mike Pence to confirm Kavanaugh as Trumps second supreme court pick, after Gorsuch.

With John McCain absent through illness and Democrats promising all-out opposition to a pick that could tilt the court to the conservatives for a generation, public attention has focused on three Democrats facing re-election in Republican states and two moderate GOP senators. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska are considered possible opponents of Kavanaugh, based on his position on abortion rights.

Democrats may not put too much faith in Paul as an ally. In March, the Kentucky senator said he would do whatever it takes to block the approval of Mike Pompeo as secretary of state, over the former congressmans views on the Iraq war and interventionist foreign policy. In April, Paul flipped and approved the nomination.

Furthermore, in 2016 Paul called Trump a delusional narcissist and an orange-faced windbag and said a speck of dirt is way more qualified to be president. Since Trump won the White House, Paul has become a presidential golf partner.

Immediately after Trump nominated Kavanaugh, Paul, who often positions himself as a civil liberties champion, released a statement in which he pledged to review the judges record and keep an open mind.

On Sunday, he drew attention to a 2015 opinion regarding NSA actions in which Kavanaugh wrote that sometimes the special needs of law enforcement outweighs the intrusion on individual liberty.

Im undecided but Im trying weigh this from the perspective of a Clinton nominee v a Trump nominee, Paul said. I am worried though, and perhaps disappointed, that Kavanaugh will cancel out Gorsuchs vote on the fourth amendment.

Paul warned of the consequences of damaging the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, in modern terms including the collection of phone records.

He said: Basically Kavanaugh ruled he was just fine with it and basically national security required it. I disagree completely if we give up our liberty for security then we could end up with neither, neither liberty nor security.

Asked if he could support Kavanaugh, Paul said: Basically there are 10 amendments listed in the bill of rights, so were down one. So lets see how he does on the other nine.

The senator said he would continue to review Kavanaughs record and would be willing to meet him and have a frank discussion.

He said: I dont think anyone in America believes that when you use a cellphone company, or you use Visa or use a bank, that youve given up your right to privacy. But hopefully were going to get an open, long and far-ranging conversation about this.

Neither Collins nor Murkowski has signalled their opposition to Trumps pick. Utah senator Orrin Hatch, a senior member of the judiciary committee, has predicted both will support it.

I cant speak for them, but Im just pretty sure theyll be there, Hatch told the Hill. [Kavanaughs] a good guy. Theres nothing controversial about him other than hes a Republican and a conservative.

Collins and Murkowski are facing pressure from pro-choice groups, such as Naral Pro-Choice America and Protect Our Care. On Thursday, Collins said that pressure would not have any effect on her vote.

Im going to make my own decision, as I always have, she told reporters. If the Democrats think the pressure campaign that they unleashed in Maine, including $3m for the television, radio and online ads is going to have an impact on me, theyre sorely mistaken. It would be better if they put that money to better use.

She described Kavanaughs credentials as impressive.

Read more:
Rand Paul breaks with Republicans as he doubts Trump ...

Coming off his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Trump has just a handful of defenders back home, even within his own party. Of those defenders, no one has been more vocal and seemingly more out of the blue than Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

Paul has given nearly a dozen interviews over the past several days championing Trump's decision to meet one-on-one with Putin. He has maintained his support for that decision even as Trump appeared to defer to Putin over his own intelligence agencies on whether Russia interfered in the 2016 election.

In an interview Monday with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Paul refused to answer the same question Trump got: Who do you trust [on election meddling], the American intelligence community ... or Putin?

What I would say is that all power needs to have checks and balances, and I think our intelligence community has way too much power, Paul said. (This interview happened before Trump claimed Tuesday that he misspoke when he gave Putin the benefit of the doubt.)

Paul is not among Trump's top defenders on a daily basis. The two aren't known to be close. Paul ran against Trump to be the Republican presidential nominee in 2016. Last summer, Trump singled Paul out as an antagonist during the Obamacare repeal debate. So why is Paul, of all people, defending the president in one of Trump's most controversial moments to date?

The answer seems to come down to two factors for Paul:

First:The end justifies the means. By that, I mean Paul would much rather have the United States and Russia talking to each other to try to solve big issues North Korea, Syria, nuclear nonproliferation than not talking to each other. The way Paul sees it, Trump's diplomatic mistakes on the world stage are less important than the fact Trump and Putin are talking. Paul, a non-interventionist with a strong libertarian streak, believes engaging with pariah global powers is more productive than punishing them. And everything, even the special counsel's Russia investigation into election meddling, pales in comparison with that goal.

I think it's a good idea for us to have conversation even with our adversaries, he told Judy Woodruff of "The PBS NewsHour" in an interview that aired Monday.

That's pretty much what Trump said Monday alongside Putin. Too often, in both recent past and long ago, we have seen the consequences when diplomacy is left on the table, Trump said.

Second:The stars are lining up for Paul in a way they haven't before. His non-interventionist beliefs are typically way outside the mainstream in Washington. Suddenly, they align with those of none other than the president of the United States. So why not take full advantage of this moment to elevate his worldview? And the best way to get attention is by doing what no one else is: defending Trump. All the better if that interview creates some controversy.

That could explain why, in many interviews, Paul not only agrees with Trump's foreign policy approach, but he seems to go out of his way to defend Trump from what he says are partisan attacks.

I think there's a bit of Trump derangement syndrome, Paul offered to Blitzer.

Paul also repeatedly says he and Trump share the same level of skepticism of U.S. intelligence agencies, which is probably the most eyebrow-raising thing Paul could have said after defending Trump.

To many Trump critics, the fact that the president appeared to side with Putin over his own government on Russia meddling was the most egregious part of the whole summit.

Paul is a senator who marches to the beat of his own drum. He's a wild card on any number of critical votes in the Senate, as prone to stage a filibuster as fall in line and vote for something. In February, the government shut down for a night as Paul filibustered a spending billthat nearly every other Republican had agreed to.

Now, Paul could be a deciding vote on whether Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, gets approved. Republicans can afford only one or two defections if all Democrats stick together, and Paul is out there saying he is very worried about Kavanaugh's previous rulings on privacy, another top issue for Paul.

The senator also is extremely adept at getting the media's attention.

In May of last year, he went on a somewhat quixotic crusade across the Capitol, dragging a copy machine and a horde of reporters with him, to find a closely guarded piece of legislation in the House to repeal Obamacare.

As you can see from the group of reporters surrounding Paul, it worked.

When you consider Paul's penchant for controversy, savvy ability to get media attention and inclination to seize a rare moment to elevate his own views, it's less surprising he's Trump's biggest defender on Russia.

But what Paul's critics say the senator misses in the process is that Trump isn't just attempting to reset relations with Russia, like Paul wants. Inadvertently or not, Trump is completely upending the world orderand the United States's position near the top of it, they argue. Paul is nearly alone in Washington in thinking that those ends are worth what Trump did Monday.

Read this article:
Why is Rand Paul, of all people, Trumps biggest defender ...

Sen. Rand Paul has defended President Trump after he appeared to side with Vladimir Putin instead of his own intelligence agencies during the leaders' summit in Helsinki, Finland. In an interview with "CBS This Morning" on Tuesday, the Kentucky Republican commended the president for being willing to meet with known adversaries in order to "try to prevent us from having World War 3."

"Yes, the vast majority of the foreign policy community, the bipartisan consensus said you shouldn't meet with Putin," Paul said. "They also said he shouldn't meet with Kim and this is an extraordinary thing about President Trump that should be lauded and not belittled is that he is willing to meet with adversaries to try to prevent us from having World War 3."

Paul stood by Mr. Trump's decision to sit down with Putin, saying that the president "did a good thing" by meeting with Putin and warned his colleagues that it was a "mistake" to "try to turn this into a partisan escapade."

Sen. Paul also compared Mr. Trump's meeting with Putin to President Ronald Reagan's summit with General Secretary of the Communist Party of theSoviet UnionMikhail Gorbachev. "CBS This Morning" co-anchor John Dickerson pointed out to Paul that Reagan, unlike Mr. Trump, had pushed America's moral objection to the Soviet Union during their meeting. Mr. Trump meanwhile, faulted both sides -- the United States and Russia, for its role in the 2016 election.

Paul, however, objected to the notion, saying that it was "not being fair to the president," citing Reagan's "evil empire" comments toward the Soviet leader.

"While the rhetoric was strong, you might actually compare that with Trump's rhetoric in North Korea, it's been very strong. So I think there's actually some apt comparisons between Reagan and Trump on the diplomatic front," said Rand.

"We have to deal with the world as it is, not as we wish it to be, and if we're only going to talk to people who have perfect constitutional republics, we're going to have a very small audience and we're going to have a lot of potential conflicts with no outlet for diplomacy," he added.

As intelligence agencies across the federal government have since endorsed the assessment compiled in January of last year that concluded Russia was indeed involved interfering in the 2016 presidential election, Paul again defended the president's comments in which he partially faulted U.S. "foolishness" for the attack on America's election system, saying that the president has undergone an "onslaught of partisan investigations."

It's a sentiment the president himself agreed with, tweeting his thanks to the senator after his comments to "CBS This Morning", saying "you really get it!"

2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

See original here:
Rand Paul defends Trump: Meeting with adversaries should ...

Developer Jim Skaggs 'couldn't believe' when he heard that a neighbor allegedly assaulted U.S. Senator Rand Paul outside his home in Bowling Green. Matt Stone/Louisville Courier Journal

US Senator Rand Paul made a Wednesday afternoon stop at the UPS Flight Training Center for a roundtable discussion with local business leaders on Oct. 11, 2017.(Photo: Marty Pearl/Special to the Courier-Journal)Buy Photo

A man is accused of threatening to chop upU.S. Sen. Rand Paul and his family with an ax.

The man has been arrested. He allegedly called in thethreats to Paul's Bowling Green office.

Paul mentioned the attack publicly at an event inLeitchfield, Kentucky, on Monday.

"Capitol Police have issued an arrest warrant for a man who threatened to kill me and chop up my family with an axe," Paul said. "It's just horrendous that we have to deal with things like this."

Capitol Police declined to comment because the investigation is ongoing.

Related: Feds appeal Rand Paul neighbor's jail sentence for lawn attack

This marks one of several threats and attacksPaul has had in the last year. More than a year ago, Paul was on the baseball diamond when James Hodgkinson opened fire and shot several congressional staffers as well as Rep. Steve Scalise, a Louisianna Republican.

Paul was unscathed.

The Kentucky senator alsois involvedin criminal and civil litigation against his neighbor, Rene Boucher. In November, Boucher tackled the senator while he was mowing the lawn of his Bowling Green home.

Boucher claimed he "had enough" of Paul's unsightly tree branches, sticks and leaves that were piled up along the property line, and he has consistently denied that the attack was politically motivated.

Boucher is a registered Democrat, according to the Kentucky State Board of Elections.

"It's been a year where we're becoming more and more aware of these threats," Paul said.

Other news: Kentucky woman posing with dead 'rare' giraffe she shot in South Africa sparks outrage

Thomas Novelly: 502-582-4465; tnovelly@courierjournal.com; Twitter: @TomNovelly. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/tomn.

Read or Share this story: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2018/07/02/man-threatens-kill-sen-rand-paul-ax/751211002/

See the original post:
Rand Paul, family allegedly threatened to be killed with ax

LOUISVILLE, Ky. U.S. Sen. Rand Paul says he and his family were targeted by someone threatening to attack them with an ax.

Paul told reporters Monday in his home state of Kentucky that Capitol Police issued an arrest warrant for a suspect. Then in a tweet, Paul thanked Capitol Police for arresting the suspect.

During a stop in Leitchfield in western Kentucky, Paul said a man threatened to kill him and "chop up" his family with an ax.

The Republican lawmaker says it's "just horrendous" that political leaders have to "deal with things like this."

A Paul spokesman declined to give additional details.

In a separate case from the fall, prosecutors are appealing the 30-day sentence given to the man who tackled and injured Paul while the lawmaker was doing yard work at his home.

The attacker in that separate incident broke five of the senator's ribs.

2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Visit link:
Rand Paul says man threatened to attack him and his family ...