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Sen. Rand Paul said Tuesday he believes President Trump understands Congress is the body that authorizes war not the president as lawmakers begin to debate whether to extend war powers to Mr. Trump for use against the Islamic State.

Lawmakers will hold a hearing Wednesday as they weigh updating the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), which granted the president permission to go after terrorists responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and then to unseat Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

In the years since, however, al Qaeda has changed, and the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has arisen as the new global terrorist network, including claiming responsibility for this weeks attack in Britain.

Some legal analysts have suggested the current AUMF doesnt authorize strikes against the Islamic State, and lawmakers are proposing new legislation to update the presidents authority.

But Mr. Paul has warned some of the new proposals pushed by his colleagues would give the president unlimited war powers.

I do think the president is with me on this on the Constitution. Our founding fathers are with me on this too, Mr. Paul told Fox News Tuesday.

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Rand Paul warns against president's unlimited war powers ...

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., departs after a vote on Gina Haspel to be CIA director, on Capitol Hill, Thursday, May 17, 2018 in Washington.(Photo: Alex Brandon, AP)

Sen. Rand Paul is not happy with former President Bill Clinton.

The Kentucky Republican slammed Clinton on Twitter after he said during a TV interview that he doesnt owe Monica Lewinsky, the former White House intern that he had an affair with, an apology.

Bill Clinton epitomizes the aggressor, not the victim, Paul tweeted Tuesday. You cant have an appropriate or consensual relationship with an intern.

He continued: "That is the definition of sexual harassment.#GiveMeABreak.

Clinton made the remark on NBC's Todayshow.He was respondingto a question from host Craig Melvin about an op-ed Lewinsky wrotewhere she questioned consent in her relationship with the former president in light of the #MeToo movement.

Melvin asked Clinton if he felt like he owed her an apology.

"No, I do I do not," Clinton responded. "I've never talked to her. But I did say, publicly, on more than one occasion, that I was sorry. That's very different. The apology was public."

Clinton admitted to having a sexual relationship with Lewinsky, who was22 years old at the time, when she was an intern. The infamous affair triggered impeachment hearings and public outlashagainst the president.

Clinton said on NBC that he did the right thing by not resigning.

"I dealt with it 20 years ago plus," Clinton said during the interview. And the American people, two-thirds of them stayed with me. And I've tried to do a good job since then with my life and with my work. That's all I have to say to you."

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Sen. Rand Paul blasts Bill Clinton over Monica Lewinsky remark

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Sen. Rand Paul: Congress Has Abdicated Role In War

The FBI didnt directly confirm that for him but it acknowledged in a letter that all agents retain Top Secret clearance. And since theres been no word that either Strzok or Page have been fired

This is canny packaging by Paul of one of his pet issues. Hes been pushing for months for reforms to FISAs Section 702 to require a new warrant whenever U.S. intelligence wants to search a database containing information on American citizens thats been incidentally collected in foreign surveillance. The politics of mass surveillance are rarely galvanizing to either the left or right, though. And despite his endless criticism of the FBI and the deep state, Trump isnt the sort to relinquish a law-enforcement tool that might be useful in sniffing out terrorist plots. Pauls dilemma, then, is how to tilt the average voter and the president towards the side of libertarianism.

The answer is to steer away from abstract arguments and give them a vivid, concrete example: Do you want Peter Strzok or Lisa Page running rogue database queries about Trump and his associates? If he frames this in terms of the Fourth Amendment or liberty, people will zone out. If he frames it in terms of Trump haters harassing the president, now hes cooking. The tweet above, in fact, seems phrased to appeal squarely to Trump himself. If you want get the Republican Party excited about civil liberties, you need to get the man who owns the party excited about it. And nothing gets through to him quite like warning him how he, personally, might be getting taken advantage of.

Other civil libertarians were unimpressed with Pauls nakedly partisan framing:

You cant style yourself a champion of the First Amendment & then demand federal employees be stripped of clearance unless theyre personally pro-Trump, Sanchez added. Maybe, but its a nifty way to try to get Trumps attention. Another nifty way is to go on Fox News and make your pitch to him through the TV screen. So thats what Rand did. Watch him below on Harris Faulkners show earlier this afternoon.

Two points, though. First, read the short letter above that he received from the FBI and youll see that it doesnt say what privileges, specifically, Strzok and Page currently have to search databases. Every agent has a Top Secret clearance but not every agent may be able to access the same information at will. After Bob Mueller found out about Strzoks anti-Trump texts with Page, he was reassigned from the Russiagate probe to human resources. What does he get to see there? Pauls broader point about warrantless surveillance still stands but its hard to know what data Strzok and Page specifically are able to view right now.

As for their employment, I *assume* the coming report from the DOJs Inspector General will address Strzok and Page just as it addresses the Andrew McCabe saga. It was the IG who referred McCabes lack of candor to the FBIs Office of Professional Responsibility, which recommended he be fired, so hes already proved that hes willing to usher bad actors towards the exit if the evidence suggests wrongdoing. It was also the IG who uncovered the now famous Strzok and Page texts, so theyre on his radar. If Strzok and Page committed firing offenses, presumably thatll be detailed in the report and Chris Wray and Jeff Sessions will act appropriately. They may be waiting for that report to issue before acting for legal reasons, in fact, so as not to be accused of having terminated Strzok and Page without cause. But theres also a chance that the IG wont recommend termination: Maybe theyll be reprimanded for shaking the publics faith in the FBI via their political texts about Trump but the evidence wont turn up any actual behavior on their part to try to sabotage Trumps campaign or presidency. Why not wait for the IG report? Its coming. In theory.

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Rand Paul: Peter Strzok and Lisa Page still have Top ...

With Congress teetering on the brink of its third government shutdown in three months, Sen. Rand Paul still hasn't seen the details of a new budget bill that's likely to be 1,000 pages long and he's not pleased.

That matters because it was Paul, R-Ky., who last month single-handedly prevented Congress from speedily moving ahead on a sweeping budget deal, triggering a short government shutdown as he protested his own Republican partys deficit spending.

This time, Paul hasn't yet decided on whether he'll seek to slow the measure, but he's clearly unhappy with the closed door talks, telling McClatchy in an interview this is a "rotten, terrible, no good way to run your government."

In two conversations with McClatchy, Paul said he'd make up his mind after he sees the $1.3 trillion spending plan, which Republican leaders had hoped to produce last week but were working round the clock with Democrats to finish Wednesday. Details are expected to be finalized later in the day.

"You have to know what's in it," Paul said. "Really, should we be looking at 1,000 page bills with 24 hours to decide what's in them? It's really not a good way to run your government."

Paul infuriated fellow Republicans last month when he took to the Senate floor to decry a spending bill. He told McClatchy this time he's still incensed by his party's willingness to bust spending caps.

"That's why I gave them a piece of my mind the last time around. I'm upset that we're spending like every Democrat that we criticized," Paul said. "I ran for office because I thought the Obama spending and trillion dollar annual deficits were a real problem for our country and now Republicans are doing the same thing.

So I'm giving them the same grief I gave Obama."

Republican lawmakers assailed Paul last month for his decision to push the vote into the early morning hours to protest what he said was excess spending, with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, calling it grossly irresponsible. But Paul said this week that hes not faced any pressure so far this time.

Senate and House leadership said they remained optimistic about reaching a deal before government funding is due to expire Friday. The House could vote as soon as Thursday, and the Senate could follow Friday.

It only takes a single senator, though, to hold up Senate proceedings.

As for a potential blockade by Paul, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., shrugged his shoulders: Sen. Paul, well he's Sen. Paul.

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Rand Paul on budget: 'A rotten, terrible' way to govern ...