Sen. Rand Paul Opposes the Nomination of Barron on Senate Floor
On Wednesday, 5/21/14, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul gave an impassioned plea decrying the use of drones to murder American citizens without any sort of due pro...
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Sen. Rand Paul Opposes the Nomination of Barron on Senate Floor - Video
Rand Paul: WH Contacted Youtube During Benghazi Attack
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Rand Paul: WH Contacted Youtube During Benghazi Attack - Video
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference at the Gaylord...
Rand Paul didn't need to explain himself.
In May 2010, the small crowd assembled at a country club in Paul's hometown of Bowling Green, Ky., was already sold. Paul had just posted a commanding, unlikely victory in the Republican Senate primary in Kentucky, marking an important, legitimizing moment for the national Tea Party movement.
But on this night of triumph, Paul wanted to make sure that his audience of true believers understood that his platform was not on the fringe of American politics.
The Tea Party message is not a radical message. Its not an extreme message, Paul said. What is extreme is a $2 trillion deficit. Thats whats extreme. The Tea Party message calls for things that are widely popular among Republicans, Democrats and Independents.
Just look at the polls, Paul said. Most Americans support term limits or mandating that Congress balance the federal budget.
Paul was not challenging anyone to cross party lines to support him, but emphasizing post-partisan points of overlap. Harnessed though he was with the Tea Party label, Paul was speaking to the center.
As Paul now looks toward a potential bid for president in 2016, he is still struggling to shake the notion, held by many powerful Republicans and average Americans, that he is outside the political mainstream. The word transformative is thrown around regularly by Paul's allies as they envision what shape his presidential bid could take: Paul doesn't have to change, the subtext reads; it is the Republican Party that must evolve and expand to accommodate his vision.
Indeed, Pauls policies seem to cater to a yet-emerging idea of the American political center, which was outlined in great detail in an Esquire-NBC News survey last year. The poll was remarkable because, rather than relying on party identification to classify voters, it assigned them to one of eight groups of like-minded Americans across the political spectrum based on policy preferences, with four of the eight groups comprising the center.
The poll showed that most Americans identify most closely with Democrats on some important policy preferences, such as social issues, but simultaneously gravitate toward some Republican economic policies. They want the U.S. to be a strong international superpower, but largely disengaged. And yes, they support term limits.
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Rand Paul bets his future on redefining the political center
(CNN) -
Rand Paul is defending his relationship with Mitch McConnell after helping his fellow Kentuckian defeat a tea party-backed challenger in a GOP Senate primary.
"I came out of the tea party movement. I'm very concerned about the debt. I'm very concerned about big government," Paul said on Friday. "But I think the misnomer is to think somehow Senator McConnell isn't. That's what his whole entire career has been predicated upon - fighting against big government."
The comments by Paul, the state's junior senator, came at a news conference with McConnell in Louisville that was focused on building party unity following a bruising campaign in which the minority leader's opponent, Matt Bevin, got 35 percent of the primary vote.
Some in the conservative grassroots movement immediately called for Republican voters to unite and support McConnell.
But Bevin has been noticeably quiet and hasn't said whether he'll back his rival--though he flatly stated on election night that he won't back the Democratic nominee.
That's not stopping Alison Lundergan Grimes, however. She's actively going after Bevin supporters. In an open letter Friday to the 40 percent of Republican voters who didn't vote for McConnell, she argued that a vote for Grimes is a vote for change.
"Yes, we are in different parties, and we have divergent views on some issues. But if you believe that we need a fresh face to shake up Washington, I invite you to join our campaign," the letter stated.
Bevin hit back later Friday with his own letter, saying she doesn't understand "the principles that united my campaign's supporters" and disparaged her stance on a number of items on her agenda.
He agreed with her that Kentucky needs change, but not her kind of change. He made no direct mention of McConnell in the letter.
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Party focused on building unity
LOUISVILLE It was kind of like that old television commercial, only this time it seemed to be If Rand Paul says its so, it must be so.
What he said is that he and his U.S. Senate colleague Mitch McConnell are excited to have a Republican Party all pulled together for our nominee.
That nominee, of course, is McConnell, who crushed Matt Bevin in Tuesdays primary which set McConnell against Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes in this falls general election.
Problem is, Bevin hasnt yet endorsed McConnell. McConnell said he and Bevin havent spoken since Tuesday night when Bevin said the countrys solutions must come from the ranks of the Republican Party and that he could never support Grimes platform. But he stopped short of endorsing McConnell.
But the five-term incumbent, who hopes to see the GOP take control of the Senate and fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming Majority Leader, pointed out that outside tea party groups like the Senate Conservatives Fund, the Madison Project and Eric Ericson of RedState have endorsed him since Tuesday.
Paul said he will campaign for McConnell and vouched for McConnells tea party-like, conservative bona fides. Paul said, as someone who came out of the tea party movement, Im very concerned about the debt; Im very concerned about big government.
But I think the misnomer is that somehow Sen. McConnell isnt, Paul continued. Bevin and other tea party voices have accused McConnell of not being conservative enough and too willingly to cut deals with President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats.
But Paul and McConnell made it abundantly clear they have no use for Obama, suggesting Obama is out to get Kentucky.
We see this is almost as a patriotic fervor, Paul said. We think Kentucky almost needs to be defended against the policies of President Obama and we think the only way that Kentucky can have a fighting chance is to have someone who will stand up to President Obama.
Both McConnell and Paul repeated the line that Obama is behind a war on coal, causing in Pauls words a veritable depression in eastern Kentucky. Both said regardless of how many times she declares her support for coal, Grimes will support the agenda of Obama and Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid.
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Sen. Paul convinced party will be united with McConnell