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LOUISVILLE U.S. Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul predicted Friday that any hurt feelings left over from McConnell's bitter primary against GOP challenger Matt Bevin will recede when conservative voters learn more about Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes.

"Really, the real question for Mrs. Grimes is how is she going to win in the state of Kentucky when she's a friend of President Obama and (Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid and she will vote for them?" Paul said. "Unless she can tell the voters she's willing to vote against Harry Reid, I don't know how we can consider her."

The senators spoke at a joint news conference that was the first for the two men since Tuesday's primary, when more than a third of Republican voters pulled the lever for Bevin.

Paul said he thinks "the people who identify with the Tea Party will come out when they realize what a disaster it would be for Kentucky to have Mrs. Grimes."

Last week's Bluegrass Poll found that 25 percent of Bevin supporters said they would support Grimes if McConnell won the primary, and Grimes sought to cement that support Friday with an open letter to Bevin's supporters.

In the letter, addressed to "Kentucky Republicans and Independents," Grimes wrote that McConnell "and his Washington lobbyist friends said a lot of negative untrue things about Matt Bevin and his family."

When asked for a list of the "untrue" things McConnell said about Bevin, Grimes spokeswoman Charly Norton said she was "going to let the letter speak for itself."

"If you believe that it is past time to give Mitch McConnell and his D.C. lobbyist cronies the boot, I welcome you to join our effort to elect an independent, commonsense problem-solver who will fight for Kentucky values," Grimes wrote in the letter.

When asked about Grimes' letter, McConnell and Paul both laughed as the senior senator said he hopes "she'll spend all of her time trying to get Republicans to vote for her."

Later Friday, Bevin issued an open letter to Grimes, questioning where she stands "on issues like Obamacare, amnesty, and abortion."

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McConnell, Paul and Grimes court Bevin's backers after contentious primary

Rand Paul Protests Judicial Nominee Over Drone Policy
Senator Rand Paul protests Obama nominee over drone policy. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky took to the Senate floor Wednesday to protest the nomination of a judi...

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Rand Paul Opposes Nomination Of Obama #39;s Drone Policy Guru To Bench May 21 2014
On Wednesday, 5/21/14, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul gave an impassioned plea decrying the use of drones to murder American citizens without any sort of due process whatsoever in advance of a...

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Rand Paul Opposes Nomination Of Obama's Drone Policy Guru To Bench May 21 2014 - Video

TAVIS SMILEY | Sen. Rand Paul | May 21, 2014
In this clip, Sen. Paul explains why he believes American jurisprudence dictates that the U.S. citizens deemed traitors and killed overseas by drone strikes should have been afforded a trial....

By: PBS

Originally posted here:
TAVIS SMILEY | Sen. Rand Paul | May 21, 2014 - Video

Rand Paul takes to the Senate floor Wednesday to oppose the nomination of David Barron to a US appeals court, citing one of his signature issues: the use of military drones to target Americans.

The speech didn't come close to the 13-hour filibuster of last year, but on Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R) of Kentucky again took to the floor of the US Senate with impassioned words about civil liberties and US drone strikes.

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The spark that set him on fire was, like last year, a nomination by President Obama. In March 2013, Senator Paul, a tea party favorite, filibustered the nomination of John Brennan to be CIA director, warning of the potential use of government drones against Americans on US soil. This time, he objected to the nomination of David Barron to the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit over concern about targeted killings of American suspects overseas.

Mr. Barron is a Harvard law professor, but when he worked for the Justice Department, he co-wrote legal memos that defended the Obama administrations policy of targeted killings abroad. The memos related to American Anwar al-Awlaki, the Al Qaeda operative killed by a US drone strike in Yemen in 2011. The memos reportedly defend the strike as lawful on grounds that Mr. Awlaki was a participant in the war with Al Qaeda on the enemy side and represented a specific threat to the US.

The legal material has been secret but, under pressure from senators, was recently made available to the full Senate not just members of the Justice and Intelligence committees. On Tuesday, the Obama administration, under court order, said it would release to the public a redacted version of the material. That has satisfied one of the Democratic critics, Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado, who supported Barron's nomination in a largely party-line procedural vote on Wednesday afternoon.

Senator Udall welcomed the administrations transparency and, in a statement, said it affirms that although the government does have the right to keep national security secrets, it does not get to have secret law. The material is not expected to be released before the Senate votes on Barron's nomination, probably Thursday.

But transparency wasnt enough to satisfy Paul, a leader in GOP presidential polls. He tried, unsuccessfully, to delay Wednesdays procedural vote on the nomination until the public fully debates the issue. As with other post-9/11 security issues torture of terrorism suspects, unlimited detention of detainees, and widespread surveillance of American phone data drone strikes challenge the balance between individual liberty and safety.

Am I the only one who thinks that something so unprecedented as an assassination of an American citizen should be discussed in the light of day? the senator asked, with incredulity.

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Rand Paul thumps Obama nominee over US drone strikes on Americans (+video)