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Sen. Rand Paul examines a patient's eyes in his Bowling Green, Ky., office in 2010. Paul, an ophthalmologist, worked on his father's campaign while in medical school. Joe Imel/AP hide caption

Sen. Rand Paul examines a patient's eyes in his Bowling Green, Ky., office in 2010. Paul, an ophthalmologist, worked on his father's campaign while in medical school.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul announced his bid for the White House Tuesday on his website. The 52-year-old former ophthalmologist's libertarian roots sets him apart from the expansive field of Republican hopefuls, most notably in foreign policy and issues like defense spending.

His father Ron Paul, also a physician, gained notoriety in the late-1980s as a presidential nominee for the Libertarian Party, but there are signs the younger Paul is moving more mainstream Republican.

Here are five things you may not know, or remember, about Rand Paul:

He doesn't have a bachelor's degree.

Paul holds a medical degree from Duke University, but he was a few courses shy of earning a bachelor's degree from Baylor University. The Kentucky senator was enrolled at the Texas Christian college, where he studied biology and English, from fall 1981 to summer 1984. He left the program after receiving his acceptance to medical school. At the time, Duke did not require a bachelor's degree for admittance, but the policy has since changed.

A fact-check conducted by The Washington Post revealed two instances on the same day in February where Paul stated that he held degrees in biology and English. A spokesman for the senator later argued to the paper that a medical degree is a biology degree.

He worked on his father's presidential campaign while attending medical school.

Despite the demanding workload of medical school, Paul worked as a volunteer for his father, Ron Paul's 1988 Libertarian Party campaign for president. According to The New York Times, the two would hold regular debates during road trips on topics such as foreign policy and military interventions, with the younger Paul taking stances that skewed closer to Republican ideology.

His father's campaign ultimately garnered less than 1 percent of the vote.

He founded an eye care clinic to aid low-income people.

Paul founded the Southern Kentucky Lions Eye Clinic, which provides free exams and surgeries to those in need, in 1995.

The senator told National Review in 2013 that he has performed more than 100 pro bono surgeries.

"There's a philosophic debate which often gets me in trouble, you know, on whether health care's a right or not," he said at a Q&A at the University of Louisville. "I think we as physicians have an obligation. As Christians, we have an obligation. ... I really believe that, and it's a deep-held belief."

He stood on the Senate floor for nearly 13 hours during a filibuster.

In March 2013, Paul took the Senate floor for 12 hours and 52 minutes in what Slate called a "(mostly) one-man show" of a filibuster, ahead of a vote to confirm John Brennan as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The speech aimed to increase criticism of the Obama administration's drone policy.

Still, the diatribe was just over half the time spent by record-holder Strom Thurmond, the late South Carolina senator, who spoke for more than 24 hours nonstop in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

He's faced multiple plagiarism accusations.

Charges of plagiarism first arose in October 2013 when MSNBC host Rachel Maddow pointed out that a portion of Paul's speech supporting gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli bore a striking resemblance to the Wikipedia page for the dystopian science fiction film Gattaca. Speaking against abortion rights activists, the senator allegedly lifted four lines from the entry.

BuzzFeed later found another similar instance where Paul recited word-for-word text from the Wikipedia entry for the movie Stand and Deliver in a June 2013 speech on immigration.

But the most damning incident occurred when The Washington Times ended the senator's weekly column after a review of his work found that he copied a passage from The Week magazine that had been published a week prior.

According to The Washington Times, Paul took some responsibility but mostly blamed the episodes on staff providing him background material that wasn't properly footnoted.

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5 Things You Should Know About Sen. Rand Paul - NPR

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

February 23, 2023

Contact: Press_Paul@paul.senate.gov, 202-224-4343

BOWLING GREEN, KY Today, U.S. Senator Rand Paul issued the following statement after announcing his nominations to the U.S. service academies, consisting of 37 nominations to individuals from across the Commonwealth of Kentucky:

A very rewarding aspect of being a United States Senator is the opportunity to nominate young men and women from across the state to attend our nations prestigious service academies. I commend each of these students for their dedication and desire to serve in the United States military, and I wish them the best through the remainder of the selection process. I have no doubt the students chosen will proudly represent the Commonwealth of Kentucky in the service academies,said Dr. Paul.

Dr. Paul nominated the following individuals to the U.S. Air Force Academy, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, the U.S. Military Academy, and the U.S. Naval Academy:

United States Air Force Academy

United States Merchant Marine Academy

United States Military Academy

United States Naval Academy

###

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Dr. Rand Paul Announces 2023 Service Academy Nominations

Provided by Washington Examiner

With two Republicans already in the 2024 presidential race and potentially a half-dozen more in spring, some forward-thinking strategists are already looking to next year, when the eventual nominee will pick a running mate.

While there are a lot of choices, the early betting is on a Capitol Hill firebrand uniquely poised to bring in the libertarian wing of the GOP, a bump of potentially 3%-4% of the vote.

There are only two realistic GOP nominees: Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis, said an adviser to House Republicans who is also close to several past conservative presidential candidates.

GET THE INSIDE SCOOP FIRST WITH WASHINGTON SECRETS

Since neither is likely to pick the other as a running mate, the adviser offered Kentucky libertarian Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) as a good fit.

Rand Paul as VP for either eliminates the need for a libertarian nominee or third-party candidate. And having that extra 3%-4% moving to the Republican ticket in 10-12 key states would be the margin of victory, he said.

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Tags: Washington Secrets, 2024 Elections, Rand Paul, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Ron DeSantis

Original Author: Paul Bedard

Original Location: Rand Paul could be the secret to winning the White House

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Rand Paul could be the secret to winning the White House

Rand Paul continues to be one of the few sane voices left in the US Senate. Unlike 18 of his GOP colleagues, he lobbied and voted against the just-passed omnibus bill, complete with its expenditures for LGBT pride centers and another $45 billion to Ukraine. The overall price tag came in at a whopping $1.7 trillion, with the national debt heading over $31 trillion.

With that setting the stage, its only fitting that Paul would release his annual Festivus report a day later, and boy, are the grievances aplenty.

For example, did you know that the federal government spent $140 million in COVID relief funds to build a spa facility? Or that the NIH spent $519,828 using mice to study racial aggression? Or that $175 million was spent to upgrade and expand the DC street car system (when I was there, almost no one used it).

Those things are just a drop in the bucket, of course.

Naturally, the biggest expenditure was the $475 billion the government spent on servicing its debt, which just continues to spiral out of control. The United States also sent $210 million to Jordan for education projects, and for some reason, $50 million was used to boost Tunisias travel sector during COVID. Why is that in US interests? Thats a good question and one that will never be sufficiently answered.

The US government is a joke. Its run by a bunch of self-aggrandizing politicians who treat themselves as heroes for spending other peoples money. They then vote themselves raises, completely insulated from the consequences of the policies they push. Id say their malfeasance is going to crush future generations, but given the continuing inflation crisis, these spending binges are crushing the current ones.

And what did Republicans do upon finally halfway winning an election and retaking the House of Representatives, partly by promising to rein in this insanity? Mitch McConnell and company join with the Democrats to pass a $1.7 trillion omnibus that gives Joe Biden everything he wants for the next ten months, neutering the ability of the new GOP congress to govern. Keep in mind that Pauls report, as bad as it already is, does not include that.

It doesnt have to be this way, but it is this way because Washington is a bubble that absorbs most who go there. Paul is one of the few who hasnt succumbed to its siren song. For that, he deserves a lot of credit, and though his Festivus report will fall on deaf ears in congress, hes still doing good work in putting this stuff out there.

The broader Republican Party doesnt deserve to win elections. Every two years, they make false promises, insisting that if you just give them power, theyll use it to push the priorities of their voters. That never happens, though. Instead, its business as usual, with massive omnibus bills, gun control bills, and infrastructure bills, among other betrayals. Whats the point of winning if you lose anyway? Whats the point of voting for people who would just as well spit in your face and tell you its raining?

No one should give a dime to the Republican Party at this point. Give to individual candidates who have shown that theyll actually do what they say theyll do. Other than that, let it burn.

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Rand Paul Releases His Yearly Festivus Report, and the Grievances Are ...

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky speaks to the media after the weekly policy luncheons on Capitol Hill July 21, 2020, in Washington, DC.Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

GOP Sen. Rand Paul unloaded on Iowa Senate hopeful Mike Franken for mocking him in 2021.

Paul suffered broken ribs and lung damage in 2017 during an altercation with a neighbor.

Franken asked if the attacker was "more than a little in the right?" which Paul calls disqualifying.

Sen. Rand Paul says Iowa Senate Democratic candidate Mike Franken is unworthy of serving in any higher office based on his making light of a 2017 attack that left Paul with broken ribs, lung problems, and lingering pain.

"Advocacy for violence should disqualify Franken from holding ANY office," the Kentucky Republican wrote online, calling the first-time candidate attempting to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa "disgusting" for celebrating Paul's misfortune.

Colleague and likely 2024 presidential contender Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas concurred, condemning Franken's "alarming behavior" and urging Iowans to return Grassley to Washington, DC for an historic eighth term.

"Iowa, send a decent man @GrassleyWorks back to the Senate to keep fighting for you," Cotton wrote online.

Paul's anger about the attack he suffered at the hands of disgruntled next-door neighbor Rene Boucher in late 2017 was apparently stirred up by a comment Franken made on Twitter in 2021.

"Wasn't Rand's neighbor more than a little in the right?" Franken posted in January 2021 in reply to a recent Paul appearance on Fox News.

Boucher, who said he snapped because of Paul's habit of piling up trash on their shared property line, was sentenced to 30 days in jail for the attack, fined $10,000 and hit with more than $580,000 in jury awarded-damages.

The Franken campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the resurfaced tweet or Paul's call to boot him from contention in the midterm elections.

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Rand Paul calls for disqualification of a Democratic Senate candidate ...