Rand Paul to force test vote to gauge Republican support for Trump impeachment trial

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: CNN

Sen. Rand Paul plans to force a test vote on Tuesday that will show how many Republicans support holding an impeachment trial for former President Donald Trump and how many believe a trial should not take place.

Paul, a Kentucky Republican, told reporters he's going to force a procedural vote on the constitutionality of a Senate trial. The vote is expected to take place Tuesday afternoon after senators are sworn in as jurors.

"I think there will be enough (votes) to show that more than a third of the Senate thinks that the whole proceeding is unconstitutional, which will show that ultimately they don't have the votes to do an impeachment," he said.

The Democratic-led House has already voted to impeach Trump, charging him with incitement of insurrection for the attack on the Capitol that left multiple people dead. But two-thirds of the Senate would have to vote to convict Trump after a trial, an extremely high bar to clear.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/rand-paul-to-force-test-vote-to-gauge-republican-support-for-trump-impeachment-trial/ar-BB1d6dVt?li=BBnb7Kz

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Can he force a vote all by himself? Questions of constitutionality are the job of the courts in my opinion.

[Walleye]

1. We should do with McConnell did whenever we want to vote on something. Block it

[AntiFascist]

28. I agree n/t

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Impeachment already happened. Constitutionality is not the Senate's purview.

This is an exercise in semantics for Curly.

[underpants]

9. Thank you. Have the vote. Have the trial too regardless of the vote.

[leftieNanner]

20. "Semantics for Curly"

LOL.

And I would add - a little bit of time for him on the TV. He's completely useless - has he EVER done anything of value in his Senate tenure? - but he loves to spout off about BS and get media attention.

Ah. Now I've got it - he's an Attention Wh***.

[FBaggins]

29. Constitutionality is definitely the Senate's purview.

They take an oath to that effect or they aren't senators.

[mountain grammy]

33. Exactly!

File this under Rand Paul says shit.

[njhoneybadger]

3. More than two thirds

[EarlG]

4. Paul doesn't get it

He still thinks that this is about convicting Trump, and that if Trump is not convicted, the GOP wins.

In fact this is a national showcase of the Republican Party's moral bankruptcy. Trump attempted to overturn a free and fair election, and when he couldn't get his way he attempted to overthrow the government by force, which put the lives of lawmakers in danger, resulted in the deaths of five people, and threatened our very democracy.

The fact that Paul and Co. are proudly defending that effort sends a loud and clear message to the country that the GOP is the party of dictatorship and sedition.

[leftieNanner]

21. Sure he gets it

This stunt, like all of his past stunts, is only about getting media attention.

[EarlG]

22. Well there is that

[COL Mustard]

31. Make Them All Decide Where They Stand

Are they for insurrection and misconduct? If so, vote to acquit.

Are they for the rule of law? If so, vote to convict, and bar from further office.

It really is that simple. Paul is correct, someone who is not in office can't be impeached. But the impeachment happened before the end of term, so it's proper. Have the trial and accept the political fallout.

[SunSeeker]

5. Fuck Rand Paul. nt

[LudwigPastorius]

6. News to Rand Paul and the other Republicans:

Your little test vote, and your opinion, or support for a trial, means exactly DICK, because there will be a trial.

You better get used to having your snowflake wants and needs ignored, beeyotches.

[keithbvadu2]

7. A test vote so Trumpsters will know whose families to threaten.

A test vote so Trumpsters will know whose families to threaten.

[58Sunliner]

26. Exactly.

[bluestarone]

8. Isn't it possible to BLOCK his bullshit?

I would think an majority vote would block this? (maybe i'm wrong here)

[drray23]

10. How does he plan to bring it to the floor if Schumer refuses?

[marble falls]

12. Really simple: He doesn't. He's pulling this stunt so he can whine about how Democrats ...

... have "blocked the process".

[FBaggins]

38. Schumer can't refuse

This isn't a request to put some legislation to a vote.

Any time there's a question pending before the Senate (e.g., a motion, an amendment, a bill, etc.) any senator can raise a point of order. The chair can rule on that order, but then any senator can call for a vote on that ruling.

Usually, this sort of thing is negotiated between the parties - but there's no way to stop him if he insists.

In theory - if his point of order is that the Senate lacks the power to try someone who is not in office... then Leahy rejects it... then he calls for a vote on that ruling - if Republicans all agree with him and one Democrat votes with them - then the trial is over.

That isn't what is anticipated. But if there are 40 Republicans who say that the Senate lacks the jurisdiction to even hear the case... then he has his talking point.

[dhill926]

11. oh neighbor....neighbor....over here please....

[marble falls]

13. We don't need anyone pulling a felony to "get" this guy.

Neighbor who attacked Rand Paul has prison sentence ...
[Search domain www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-neighbor-who-attacked-rand-paul-had-prison-sentence-extended-20200727-zih6gckijfgiflgnvnaj52pzda-story.html] https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-neighbor-who-attacked-rand-paul-had-prison-sentence-extended-20200727-zih6gckijfgiflgnvnaj52pzda-story.html
The guy who broke Sen. Rand Paul's ribs during a dispute about their yards will serve seven months more in prison than originally expected, U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Leitman ruled on Monday.

Rand Paul neighbor attack: Rene Boucher asks for Supreme ...
[Search domain www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/rand-paul/2019/11/13/rand-paul-neighbor-attack-rene-boucher-asks-supreme-court-sentence-review/4176703002/] https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/rand-paul/2019/11/13/rand-paul-neighbor-attack-rene-boucher-asks-supreme-court-sentence-review/4176703002/
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) — Sen. Rand Paul's former neighbor, who tackled and broke the Kentucky Republican's ribs in 2017, has asked for the U.S. Supreme Court's opinion after an appellate ...


Rand Paul neighbor attack: Senator awarded $580,000 - The ...
[Search domain www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/01/31/sen-rand-paul-awarded-after-neighbor-broke-six-his-ribs-attack/] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/01/31/sen-rand-paul-awarded-after-neighbor-broke-six-his-ribs-attack/
Jan 31, 2019A Kentucky jury awarded Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) more than $580,000 Wednesday in a lawsuit against his next-door neighbor, who broke six of the senator's ribs in 2017 over a long-standing ...

Rand Paul has part of lung removed after 2017 assault by ...
[Search domain www.foxnews.com/politics/rand-paul-undergoes-lung-surgery-after-2017-assault-by-neighbor] https://www.foxnews.com/politics/rand-paul-undergoes-lung-surgery-after-2017-assault-by-neighbor
Republican Sen. Rand Paul had part of his lung removed over the weekend due to complications from the 2017 assault by his neighbor. "Unfortunately, I will have to limit my August activities.


We Finally Know Why Rand Paul's Neighbor Attacked Him by ...
[Search domain townhall.com/tipsheet/cortneyobrien/2018/06/11/we-finally-know-why-rand-pauls-neighbor-attacked-him-n2489678] https://townhall.com/tipsheet/cortneyobrien/2018/06/11/we-finally-know-why-rand-pauls-neighbor-attacked-him-n2489678
Jun 11, 2018Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was left with six broken ribs, including three displaced fractures, and months of intense pain that felt like 1,000 knives after his neighbor attacked him last year. The ...

[NHvet]

16. Unfortunatley this only tells part of the story

These things didn't happen in a vacuum. Things transpired prior to the assault that led to it. Both parties had a hand in this and seems to me that the Senators standing in society helped him avoid facing his culpability in it. I can only imagine living next door to a douche like Paul.

[marble falls]

18. Yeah. The neighbor was pissed over a brush pile that Paul left laying near the property line ...

... and one day while Paul was raking it a little higher he tackled Paul.

Do you think that was worth over a year in prison and $450,000 in a settlement plus fines and costs?

Do you go around criminally assaulting imbeciles? Of course not, and that neighbor majorly fucked up. If we do it, they get to do it, too.

From the last link I posed:

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/cortneyobrien/2018/06/11/we-finally-know-why-rand-pauls-neighbor-attacked-him-n2489678

"Before Senator Paul was violently attacked from behind, he had no conversations or discussions with the attacker. There was no 'longstanding dispute.' This description is untrue. It is impossible to have a dispute when no words of disagreement were ever spoken - neither immediately nor at any other time before the attack occurred. In the decade prior to the attack, Senator Paul had no contact with the attacker.

The attack was a pre-meditated assault that broke six of the Senator’s ribs and was complicated by fluid and blood around the lung and recurrent pneumonia. Any description of this attack that implies a “yard dispute” justifies such violence and misses the point."


Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was left with six broken ribs, including three displaced fractures, and months of intense pain that felt like 1,000 knives after his neighbor attacked him last year. The assailant, Dr. Rene Boucher, attacked Paul while he was mowing his lawn. The senator had just stepped off the lawn mower and was wearing silencing earmuffs and never saw or heard his neighbor coming.

-snip-


... From the Associated Press:

It said the disagreement over yard debris dates back to September 2017, when Paul piled a 10-foot-wide (3-meter-wide) stack of limbs onto a spot near Boucher’s property. The pile sat until October, when Boucher picked it up and hauled it away in portable dumpsters.

“Even though this debris was not on Dr. Boucher’s property, he viewed it as unsightly — as it was placed directly in his line of sight from his patio and the back door of his house,” the court record said.

Two more piles of debris appeared in the same month, and Boucher burned the pile on Nov. 2. Boucher used gasoline and suffered second-degree burns that he needed treatment for, the memorandum said.

The next day, Paul used his lawnmower to blow leaves onto Boucher’s yard and then made another branch pile in the same spot, it said.

“As Dr. Boucher has stated throughout, he lost his temper and tackled Rand Paul as Paul was carrying branches from another location on his property and placing them on the property line,” the memorandum said.

-snip-

[olegramps]

27. It seems that the asshole senator was intentionally provoking the neighbor.

This what little assholes Republicans have been getting away with for years because the rely on the assumption that they are protected by law. He is like the nasty little bastard we all knew in school who would call people names and provoke them and then hide behind the teacher so they wouldn't be knocked on their ass. The only people who would like Rand Paul are people of the same despicable ilk, i.e., reprehensible Republicans. It unfortunate that courts cannot mitigate the factor of intention provocation in its judgment as an element in assessing culpability.

[NHvet]

47. Here Here!

Hence my statement that the "Both parties had a hand in this and seems to me that the Senators standing in society helped him avoid facing his culpability in it."

[oldsoftie]

35. Where the heck do they live that the city or county wont pick up yard waste??

They'll pick up whatever i pile up, but i'll have to pay extra if its over a certain sized pile

[mountain grammy]

37. The fact he's in pain every day doesn't bother me a bit.. n/t

[marble falls]

45. I don't care because a soul can bear so much intentional dickishness, but couldn't the neighbor ...

... in ten years reported an eyesore? Was it worth 22 months in Prison and $450,000 in settlement plus fines, attorneys, costs, maybe losing his professional license/certification?

I'm only saying that just because I wouldn't walk across the street to wee on Rand if he were on fire unless he was holding a baby (and even I'd need to know whose baby it was first), it doesn't mean I'd blindside him a body tackle, either.

I'd feel the same if someone blindsided Bernie Sanders or Amy Klobuchar, too.

[BumRushDaShow]

14. Dumb fuck SPAWN of RON PAUL

refuses to wear a mask in the chamber.

[Midnight Writer]

15. Sounds like a good idea. Draw the battle lines within the Senate Republicans. A loyalty test.

Let them call out each other.

I have seen groups crumble when members decide to hold "loyalty tests".

[dem4decades]

17. Let them vote, then make them hear the evidence. F them.

[George II]

19. He's making his point of order right now. Let's see how it goes. The President (Leahy) can rule it..

...out of order. Or they can take a vote.

[roamer65]

23. Many of them may vote its constitutional, yet not vote to convict.

Useless vote. Doesn’t indicate shit.

[FBaggins]

39. Why would they do that

"I don't think the conduct warrants removal" is so much harder to sell than "I might have considered removal because the conduct was clearly serious... but we can't try a former president"

[PatrickforO]

24. My, isn't Rand a regular cork in the rectum of progress!

He's confusing political expediency with constitutionality.

Courts decide constitutionality. The Senate is the jury in the trial of a president who was impeached by the House for Sedition. The Senate is REQUIRED by the Constitution to HAVE a trial. Little Rand simply doesn't have the power to stop that.

His strategy, the scamp, is clearly to force Republicans to take a public stand so the right-wing can get pressure to bear on them. They have found, with the votes not to ratify the electoral college votes in favor of Biden, just how low the Trump white supremacists are willing to go in threatening the lives and families of Republicans voting any way but Trump's.

I have always felt Rand is a bit of a traitor - there is a stench of Benedict Arnold around this party...

[FBaggins]

41. Courts are not the only ones who decide constitutionality

Many Democrats believed that Clinton was "guilty" of the offenses that he was charged with... but didn't consider them to be "high crimes and misdemeanors". They were, in effect, rejecting the House's evaluation of whether they met the constitutional standard.

In fact, IIRC, that was the president's defense. Something like "morally disgusting, but not impeachable".

Democrats used the identical strategy during that impeachment trial.

[PatrickforO]

43. Thanks for the education! I think Rand is still a traitor, because this was well

beyond anything Clinton did. He was not a traitor, did not try and stage a coup, and did not unleash a vicious mob of insurrectionists to desecrate the Capitol.

Clinton just had sex with an intern. Not good, but nothing even in the realm of what Trump did.

On edit: sigh...misspelled vicious...

[wryter2000]

25. It doesn't matter what a third of the Senate wants

The Dems are in control. When will they get that through their thick heads?

And we've "done" impeachment in the House. And the point isn't to convict Trump. That's not going to happen. The point is to get the truth out.

He is so stupid.

[Joe Nation]

30. I thought Libertarians were strict Constitutionalists

Unless they are just hypocrites like Paul.

[Fiendish Thingy]

32. This could backfire- note that many corporations have stopped donations

To those who voted to block electoral college votes from being counted...perhaps they will do the same for those who try to block an impeachment trial.

We might see a lot of “present” votes on this stunt...

[Sogo]

34. They should all vote "present."

[bucolic_frolic]

36. 45 Republican Senators "meh" with insurrection targeting them!

How dumb do you have to be?

[kimbutgar]

40. Why doesn't someone just expose him as a Russian asset?

[Evolve Dammit]

42. Too bad his crack back block neighbor didn't hit him harder. Smarmy "Aqua Buddha" asshole. n/t

[Jon King]

44. The Presidency can never fall into Repub hands again.

45 Senators think as long as a Republican President does his high crimes right before leaving office its okay. These monsters can never be allowed the Presidency ever again.

[C Moon]

46. I guess Rand Paul is still in touch with Putin.

[Lokee11]

48. Can someone PLEASE ask his neighbor to go have a "talk" with him?

✊!