Elections
Rand Paul: ‘The fraud happened. The election in many ways was stolen’
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) at Wednesday’s U.S. Senate hearing examining irregularities during 2020 presidential election claimed that “fraud happened” and that the election “in many ways was stolen.”
More from the hearing: Sen. Ron Johnson says hyper partisanship and media suppression affected the outcome of the 2020 presidential election
This Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing comes after the Electoral College on Monday voted, making President-elect Joe Biden‘s victory official, and after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and many other top Senate Republicans congratulated the president-elect following Monday’s vote. President Donald Trump refuses to concede the election and continues to claim that the election was stolen from him.
RELATED: McConnell congratulates Biden on election victory, draws criticism from some conservatives
The hearing’s top witness was Chris Krebs, who served as Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and oversaw the United States’ election security for the 2020 presidential election. President Trump controversially fired Krebs because he disagreed with the president on the prevalence of election fraud, even having created a CISA website for the purpose of debunking election disinformation.
“The fraud happened. The election in many ways was stolen,” the Kentucky Republican claimed. “And the only way it’ll be fixed is by, in the future, reinforcing the laws.”
“But I think [Kreb’s] job was keeping the foreigners out of the election. It was the most secure election based on the security of the internet and technology, but he has never voiced an opinion […] on whether or not dead people voted—I don’t think he examined that,” Paul said toward the end of his speaking time, then questioning if Krebs examined non-citizens’ voting.
Many Republicans, in alleging that widespread election fraud occurred in the 2020 election, have often cited claims that a lot of dead people and non-citizens voted. The over 50 lawsuits challenging the results of the election in certain swing states alleging election fraud have overwhelmingly failed in the courts.
“So to say it was the safest election—sure, I agree with your statement if you’re referring to foreign intervention,” Paul continued. “But if you’re saying it’s the safest election based on no dead people voted, no non-citizens voted, no people broke the absentee [ballot] rules, I think that’s false and I think that’s what’s upset a lot of people on our side is that they’re taking your statement to mean ‘Oh, there were no problems in the elections.'”
“I don’t think you examined any of the problems that we’ve heard here,” he added, “so really you’re just referring to something differently, the way I look at it.”
You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @Douglas_P_Braff.
UPDATE: Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro was sentenced to four months in prison for refusing to comply with a House January 6 Committee subpoena.
“The words executive privilege are not magical incantations,” presiding U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta said on Thursday. “It’s just not, it’s not a get-out-of-jail-free card.”
“I have a great deal of respect for your client and what he’s achieved professionally, I do,” Mehta noted before sentencing. “Which makes it all the more disappointing, the way he behaved.”
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The January 6 select committee is accused of deleting more than 100 encrypted files days before Republicans took the majority. Additionally, “although the House select committee is no longer functional, its effects are still being felt” writes Just The News.
Former Trump White House trade adviser Peter Navarro will be sentenced Thursday following his conviction in September on two counts of congressional contempt after he defied a subpoena from the former House select committee that probed the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.
Prosecutors are asking federal Judge Amit Mehta to sentence Navarro, 74, to six months in prison for each charge, running concurrently, and fine him $200,000, which is $100,000 for each count, per CNN.
Both counts carry mandatory minimum sentences of one month in prison, but prosecutors said in a filing last week that the amount of time “is insufficient to account for, punish, and deter the Defendant’s criminal offense,” according to ABC News.
“The Defendant, like the rioters at the Capitol, put politics, not country, first, and stonewalled Congress’s investigation,” prosecutors also said. “The Defendant chose allegiance to former President Donald Trump over the rule of law.”
Navarro is just another example of the committee’s ‘effects’. Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon was convicted in 2022 on two counts of contempt and sentenced to four months in prison, but the sentence is suspended pending an appeal as he attempts to overturn his conviction, notes Just The News.
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