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Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) tested positive for Coronavirus, according to his Twitter account on Sunday morning.

Senator Rand Paul has tested positive for COVID-19. He is feeling fine and is in quarantine. He is asymptomatic and was tested out of an abundance of caution due to his extensive travel and events. He was not aware of any direct contact with any infected person.

Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2020

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Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and the wealthy wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2020 demands.

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Rand Paul Tests Positive for Coronavirus - Mother Jones

Governments around the world are rushing to determine an appropriate response to coronavirus. COVID-19 (a new strain of coronavirus) was first detected in China in 2019 and, subsequently, elsewhere around the world. Yesterday, The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a pandemic.

In China, the hardest hit country, sporting events and theaters were closed, as were schools and universities. Mobile phone apps like WeChat were used to track peoples movements and stop people with infections from traveling. In Italy, which has the second-highest number of reported cases, public processions were banned, as were funerals. And in Japan, the government shut down schools around the country and is encouraging businesses to allow employees to work from home.

In Minnesota, five cases of the virus have been confirmed. The first case, confirmed last Friday, was a man in Ramsey County, older than 65, who had been on the Grand Princess cruise ship currently in quarantine in California (there are 42 other Minnesotans still quarantined on the ship).

At the state level, Minnesotas Governor and State Legislature are looking for a unified approach to prepare for the worst, but not inspire panic. The Legislature fast-tracked $21 million in response measures to the governors desk and the governor signed the bill this week.

What about in Congress?

Last Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted to allocate $8.3 billion to combat the virus in an emergency supplemental spending bill. Every single Minnesotan in the Minnesota congressional delegation, Democrats and Republicans, voted for the bill. It passed 415 to 2, with two Republicans voting against it. The bill then passed in the Senate, where both Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith voted for it, with one no vote: Rand Paul (R-KY). The president signed it into law last week.

REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Sen. Amy Klobuchar

House Democrats intend to hold a vote on another multi-billion dollar coronavirus response bill on Thursday. That measure includes language to establish emergency paid sick leave, free testing, unemployment insurance, and provisions for food aid. Its unclear if the president will sign the bill or how Republicans in the Senate intend to vote, but House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has said the bill comes up short, and he asked Speaker Nancy Pelosi to hold it for 24 to 48 hours. Pelosi said she still intends to put it up for a vote Thursday.

On Wednesday, the House Committee on Labor and Education discussed The Healthy Families Act, a bill that would require employers with 15 or more employees to provide one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked (up to 56 hours per year). Rep. Ilhan Omar, who serves on the committee, supports this legislation, pointing out that, during the coronavirus outbreak, most U.S. employees cannot work from home or access readily available sick leave.

MinnPost file photo by Tony Nelson

Rep. Ilhan Omar

Omar is also the author of a bill that would allow the U.S. Department of Agriculture to approve waivers to let schools continue to operate free and reduced school lunch plans even if classes arent being held, and even if it results in an increased cost for the federal government. Twenty-two million children rely on federal subsidized meals. For many kids, it is the only meal they get each day, Omar said in a statement. It is our responsibility to ensure that kids continue to get the meals they need.

Both of Minnesotas senators are also concerned about the virus impact on other government functions. Smith and Klobuchar were the lead authors of a letter sent on March 3rd to U.S. Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham seeking information on how the bureau planned to ensure census takers and the public are protected as the census is conducted.

In West Saint Paul last week, Rep. Angie Craig hosted a town hall with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in St. Paul, to discuss coronavirus preparedness.

MinnPost photo by Walker Orenstein

Rep. Angie Craig

And Rep. Dean Phillips, along with the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, met with Vice President Mike Pence last month to discuss the outbreak.

I am on a mission to serve and protect my constituents and all Americans, and will continue to ask critical questions and demand action during the months ahead, Phillips said in a statement. We must tackle this threat with a unified, nonpartisan front at home and overseas, and ensure that our public health officials are afforded the resources to protect our nation.

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How Minnesotans in Congress are responding to the COVID-19 outbreak - MinnPost

President Trump is as scared of running against Joe Biden as he is of running. The question is, why? One reason he fears Biden is because Biden is like him. He's old, gets confused, mispronounces words, forgets things, and makes gaffes. But attacking him for these things invites the obvious response: "He sounds a lot like you!"

Indeed, Trump can't attack Biden without attacking himself. Biden's weaknesses magnify Trump's, which are far worse. There's nothing that Biden does that Trump doesn't do worse. Biden has been touchy with women; Trump has been criminal with women. Biden has hair plugs; Trump has something worse. Biden said Barack Obama was "articulate." Trump said Obama was Kenyan.

Trump hasn't addressed any of these yet. Instead, he is focusing on Biden's mental acuity. "Sleepy Joe," Trump said last week, "he doesn't even know where he is or what he's doing or what office he's running for. Honestly, I don't think he knows what office he's running for."

In typical narcissistic fashion, Trump is projecting his flaws onto his opponent. He did this in 2016 when he attacked Hillary Clinton for running a fraudulent charity and risking state secrets. When Clinton said Trump was Vladimir Putin's "puppet" in a debate, Trump shot back, "You're the puppet!" Which was unconvincing. By parroting Clinton's accusation, he effectively confirmed it. Trump's team learned a valuable lesson from that: Always accuse your opponent of that which you are guilty and do it before he or she accuses you. With Biden, Trump is shouting "You're the puppet!" preemptively.

Trump began the week by tweeting, "The Obama/Biden Administration is the most corrupt Administration in the history of our Country!" To paraphrase Dragnet, the names have been changed to protect the guilty.

This is the downside to the preemptive strike: Every projection is a confession of guilt.

The Republican Party is smearing Biden by likening him to Trump. Steve Guest, the RNC's rapid response director, tweeted: "Joe Biden confuses who his wife is and who his sister is during Super Tuesday speech." Unlike Trump, who confuses his daughter for his mistress.

Donald Trump Jr. said that Biden's "family fortunes" were "totally tied to him being in elected office." The next day, he tweeted, "It's almost like the whole Biden family is entity [sic] dependent on Joe holding public office?" It's almost as if Donald Trump Jr. became a best-selling author because the RNC bought copies of his book in bulk during his father's presidency.

On Tuesday, Eric Trump said, "If my father was making the same gaffes as he was, they would literally invoke Article 25 of the uh," by which he meant the U.S. Constitution.

This is the document Trump swore to uphold and hasn't read. Among the parts he hasn't read, he hasn't read the impeachment clauses the most. At a rally in North Carolina this month, Trump said that Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Pete Buttigieg "should be impeached." Trump is the third president to be impeached and the first president who, after being impeached, doesn't know how impeachment works.

Trump reveals his ignorance every time he speaks, which is too often. Last year, he said, "When I say something that you might think is a gaffe, it's on purpose. It's not a gaffe." Two days later, Trump said that one of America's "greatest strides" was the "abolition of civil rights." It's somehow just as unsettling for the president to declare his opposition to civil rights by accident as it is on purpose, and it's equally plausible.

In an interview on Fox Business in 2017, Trump managed to recount the details of a cake he was eating while launching missiles, but not which country he was attacking. Trump, who claimed to have "one of the best memories in the world" and then forgot he said that, says Biden has a deficient memory.

He does. On Tuesday, Biden, discussing guns, mistakenly said "AR-14" instead of "AR-15." This was the same day that Trump, asked about the coronavirus, said, "I've been briefed on every contingency you could possibly imagine. Many contingencies. A lot of positive. Different numbers. All different numbers. Very large numbers, and some small numbers too, by the way."

This is how Trump speaks: He uses a lot of words to say nothing at all. His mouth is always open and his mind is always closed.

"Have you ever seen a national candidate or nominee stumble over so many words and putting sentences together?" Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) asked. "I think he's really struggling. I think Trump will make mincemeat of him in a debate."

Paul has a point. It's hard to rebut Trump's statements. That's because it's hard to understand them.

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Why Trump fears Biden - The Week

A whistleblower expert on Friday penned a letter to the Senate Select Committee on Ethics requesting the panel open an investigation into Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) for illegally and dangerously naming a government whistleblower during the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.

The letter, penned by author and journalist Tom Mueller,whose latest book Crisis of Conscience details the cultural history of whistleblowing, argues that Paulspolitical stunt defied the express ruling of Chief Justice John Roberts, applicable Senate rules and practices, and federal criminal law.

Senator Pauls actions constituted a retaliatory outing of a government witnesswhich is criminal conduct, Mueller wrote, citing to 18 U.S.C. 1513(e), which criminalizes any retaliatory actions taken against any persons who come forward to provide truthful information regarding the possible commission of a federal offense.

Whether or not the named individual was in fact the whistleblower, as Senator Paul claimed, is irrelevant to this concern. A senator charged with the safety and security of the nation should not be purposefully placing a citizen in harms way for no public purpose, the letter said.

Mueller also refuted the notion that Pauls comments were protected by the Speech and Debate Clause of the U.S. Constitution, specifically noting that Paul also said the alleged whistleblowers name during an impromptu press conference and on Twitter.

Court decisions have clarified that such protections extend only to legislative activity, as the purpose of the clause is to protect the free and full expression of congresspeople during such activity, he wrote.There is no way to construe Senator Pauls public outing of the whistleblower as conducive to legislative debate. The naming of a private citizen, in public and not on the Senate floor, is not legislative activity.

Imploring the committee to open an investigation, Mueller said that Pauls actions not only flouted the design of the impeachment proceedings and demonstrated contempt for Roberts in his role as presiding officer, but also very likely chilled future whistleblowers from coming forward and reporting misdeeds in the executive branch.

In the past, the Senate Select Committee on Ethics has admonished members who fail to meet the higher standards expected of a U.S. Senator, Mueller wrote. Senator Pauls conduct reflects poorly on the Senate. His behavior violates the bipartisan consensus that whistleblowers deserve protection, which is explicated in numerous laws and regulations including those that specifically prohibit outing a whistleblower as illegal retaliation.

Read the full letter below:

Lankford Letter Re Ethics Complaint by Law&Crime on Scribd

[image via C-SPAN screengrab]

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Whistleblower Expert: Rand Pauls Retaliatory Outing of Alleged Ukraine Whistleblower Was Criminal - Law & Crime

FRANKFORT, Ky. Senator Rand Paul, who often publicly defends President Donald Trump, is speaking out about the impeachment trial. In an interview with WHAS11s Political Editor Chris Williams, Sen. Paul said the trial never made sense.

The great irony of all of this is they accuse the president of abusing government to go after a political opponent. What have they done? They've simply abused government to go after their political opponent. One of them in their argument said, 'Well, we had to get this done because it's an election year. We were in a big hurry, Sen. Paul said.

According to the senator, people from Rep. Adam Schiffs team and the National Security Council reportedly discussed impeachment two years ago, suggesting conspiracy and abuse of the whistleblower role.

Last week, Sen. Paul was accused of naming the whistleblower to reporters, though he told WHAS11 does not know the whistleblowers name.

Following the Senate's acquittal of President Trump on both articles of impeachment, Sen. Paul posted a series of tweets. He said, in part, "I hope we wont go down such a partisan-driven path again."

Make it easy to keep up-to-date with more stories like this. Download the WHAS11 News app now. For Apple or Android users.

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Sen. Rand Paul on impeachment trial: 'None of it ever made sense' - WHAS11.com