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PHILADELPHIA Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) vowed Monday to do "everything possible" end the renewal of the Patriot Act -- even as he conceded that the filibuster he was planning was unlikely to be enough to end the program.

We do not have the votes to ultimately defeat the Patriot Act. I can delay it; I can force them to debate it so the public at large can know what theyre doing, Paul said, while asserting that he has public opinion on his side.

Theyve got the votes inside the Beltway, but we have the votes outside the Beltway, Paul said.

Pauls trip here was designed to be teeming with symbolism as he prepares for what he calls a fight for the Fourth Amendment. Paul held a question and answer session with a Philadelphia radio host at the Constitution Center, where the Bill of Rights is displayed, followed by a press conference in the shadow of Independence Hall with sign-waving campaign supporters.

Our founding fathers would be appalled to know that we are writing one single warrant and collecting everyones phone records all of the time, Paul said, reiterating a call for President Obama to end the bulk collection of phone records in the wake of a judges ruling that it violated the Patriot Act.

[Rand Paul: NSA court ruling should spur Obama to stop bulk collection of phone records]

Paul said that he would vote no on the USA Freedom Act, a compromise bill that would stop the government from collecting data but allow phone companies to keep it, because he is afraid it could actually expand government power. Speaking to reporters after his events, Paul repeated an assertion he first made in January: that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Edward Snowden should share a prison cell.

"It would probably be just and informative to put Clapper and Snowden in the same cell," he said.

Paul has been shifting to the right on foreign policy as he tries to win the Republican nomination, and he did so again Monday, asserting that the 2007 troop surge in Iraq worked.

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Rand Paul vows to do everything possible to block Patriot ...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. When James Comers phone buzzed Monday night, he had just finished tangling with the three Republicans angling to crush him in next weeks Kentucky GOP gubernatorial primary. The campaign had hit its ugly zenith a week earlier, when Comers ex-girlfriend accused him of hitting her decades earlier when they were in college together.

The message on his phone, though, was an uplifting one: Hang in there. And it came from an unlikely source: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

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Basically, he tells me to keep my head up, Comer told POLITICO after a local Republican Party function here on Thursday night. Comer began to explain that Paul himself had been a victim of similar controversies before an aide ended the interview.

Pauls communication, during one of the nastiest Republican-on-Republican brawls in recent memory, was remarkable because the first-term senator, who announced a bid for president last month, has remained neutral in the four-way primary, despite close ties to Comer in the past. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, also from Kentucky, has declined to intervene in the race as well.

Their silence has been noticeable in a contest that has otherwise tested and frayed Republican allegiances in the close-knit state, featured a hail of super PAC spending and a host of personal attacks. Both senators also have a political stake in the outcome.

Paul needs the states next governor to help drive legal changes that will allow him to run for his Senate seat next year while he seeks the White House. And McConnell is standing by as the man who tried to unseat him last year conservative businessman Matt Bevin inches closer to the nomination.

Bevin, Comer and Louisville businessman Hal Heiner are locked in a three-way tie just days from next Tuesdays primary, according to recent polls. All three candidates shrug off the significance of endorsements. Ive pretty much been on my own in the race, but Im proud of what Ive done, said Comer, the states agriculture commissioner.

But in a race this close, the smallest shift of the needle could affect the outcome.

The winner will take on the all-but-certain Democratic nominee, Attorney General Jack Conway. Democrats have held Kentuckys governorship for 36 of the last 40 years, a startling reality in a state that votes reliably Republican in federal elections.

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Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul lie low in Kentucky primary ...

Filibuster Time

05.15.155:15 AM ET

The NSA reform. Jebs Iraq fumbling. Even Stephanopouloss donations to the Clinton Foundation. This news cycle seems tailor-made for Randbut will he do anything more than criticize?

Praise Aqua Buddha! Rand Paul, the United States senator from Kentucky and Republican presidential candidate, has been gifted a news cycle that feels designedby a certain false idol, perhapsto flatter him.

First, the House of Representatives passed the USA Freedom Act, which, while ending mass phone data collection, extends much of the 2001 Patriot Act that Paul vehemently opposes. That position puts Paul at odds with exactly the sort of people he wants to be at odds with: more moderate primary hopefuls Jeb Bush and Chris Christie, both of whom support NSA surveillance on American citizens.

Pauls preparing to milk that contrast for all its worth by threatening to filibuster. I have until May 19th to mobilize the grassroots for this fight and Im counting on your immediate support, he told donors via e-mail Thursday. I need to know right now if I can count on you to stand with me as I filibuster the so-called PATRIOT Act.

Then Paul was handed another opportunity.

As Bush campaigned on the West Coast, he was asked a fairly obvious question: Knowing what he knows now, would he have supported his brother, George W. Bush, in his decision to invade Iraq in 2003? Yes or I dont know were his stammering answers.

Talking about the future is more than fair, Bush said. Talking about the past and saying how you would have done something after the fact is a little tougher and it doesnt necessarily change things. He dismissed such hypothetical questions.

Paul, who has consistently said throughout his political career that he opposed the war in Iraq, responded in an interview with Politico: I dont think its hypothetical whether or not its a good idea to topple secular dictators in the Middle East and hope to get a good outcome and hope that stability comes thereafter. Iraq, Paul said, was an example of such a strategy failing.

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This Should Be Rand Pauls Moment. Is He Going to Miss It ...

Republican Sen. Rand Paul said Thursday that ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos should be prohibited from moderating any debates during the 2016 presidential campaign because of contributions he made to the Clinton Foundation.

Its impossible to divorce yourself from that, even if you try, Paul told The New York Times. I just think its really, really hard because hes been there, so close to them, that there would be a conflict of interest if he tried to be a moderator of any sort.

Stephanopoulostold the On Media blogon Thursday that he had given $75,000 to the Foundation between 2012 and 2014, a charitable contributionhe did not publicly disclose while reporting on the Clintons or their nonprofit organization.

"I made charitable donations to the Foundation in support of the work theyre doing on global AIDS prevention and deforestation, causes I care about deeply," Stephanopoulos said in his statement. "I thought that my contributions were a matter of public record. However, in hindsight, I should have taken the extra step of personally disclosing my donations to my employer and to the viewers on air during the recent news stories about the Foundation. I apologize."

ABC News issued a statement of support forStephanopoulos and said it would take no punitive action against him."We accept his apology," a spokesperson said. "It was an honest mistake."

Sen. Paul wasn't the only one to suggest thatStephanopoulos' donations and lack of disclosure made him unfit to report on the 2016 campaign. Conn Carroll, the communications director for Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, tweeted Thursday: "I'm not letting my boss go on @ABC until @GStephanopoulos recuses himself from all 2016 coverage."

Stephanopoulos is the chief anchor and chief political correspondent for ABC News, as well as the co-anchor of ABC's "Good Morning America" and host of "This Week," its Sunday morning public affairs program. Prior to joining ABC News, he served as communications director and senior adviser for policy and strategy to President Bill Clinton. He also served as communications director on Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign.

CORRECTION: ABC News initially stated that GeorgeStephanopouloshad given a total of $50,000 to the Clinton Foundation. Inan interviewon Thursday afternoon, Stephanopoulos said he actually gave $75,000 over 2012, 2013 and 2014.

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Rand Paul: Stephanopoulos shouldn't moderate any 2016 ...

A Democratic tracker got a licking Monday while attending a Rand Paul campaign event in New Hampshire.

A campaign staffer for the Republican presidential candidate licked the camera lens of a tracker from the Democratic opposition research super PAC, American Bridge 21st Century, while recording the event. And the tracker caught it all on tape:

(Trackers are people hired by opponents, or opposition groups, to film everything a candidate does or says in public. They are at just about every public event featuring 2016 presidential contenders these days, and campaigns and candidates know to expect them).

When asked about the incident, Paul's campaign avoided it.

"Senator Rand Paul visited New Hampshire today to accept the endorsement of twenty New Hampshire State Representatives who support his run for the White House, and to visit with and take questions from the voters of NH," campaign communications director Sergio Gor said in a statement. "It was a great day of events."

American Bridge Tracking Director Becky Parks reacted in a tweet:

And the group's communications director, Ben Ray, said he's ever seen anything like this before.

"No. No, I have not," Ray told ABC News, noting that it's a common practice for staffers to try to block trackers' cameras with their bodies -- but not to go this far.

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Rand Paul Presidential Campaign Staffer Licks Camera of ...