Rand Paul: Election was ‘in many ways stolen’

Sen. Rand Paul said at a hearing Wednesday that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” for Democrat Joseph R. Biden.

The Kentucky Republican made the claim about voter fraud and the need for election reforms during a hearing featuring testimony from Christopher Krebs, the president’s former cybersecurity chief whom President Trump fired for saying there was no significant election fraud.

“The fraud happened. The election in many ways was stolen and the only way it will be fixed is by in the future reinforcing the laws,” Mr. Paul said during the Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing.

.@RandPaul: “The fraud happened. The election in many ways was stolen and the only way it will be fixed is by in the future reinforcing the laws.” pic.twitter.com/o0iBhe9ois

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) December 16, 2020

As a skeptical Mr. Krebs looked on, Mr. Paul said that he didn’t want to federalize elections, but does want hearings next year involving state legislators on election fixes, including limiting the involvement of courts in rewriting election laws on the fly, as Republicans charge in several key swing states.

“I think state legislatures will need to reaffirm that election law can only be changed by a state legislature,” he said.

Mr. Paul said that whether voting irregularities would have affected the outcome and whether legal cases were brought successfully are distractions.

“We can’t just say it didn’t happen. We can’t just say ’oh, 4,000 people voted in Nevada that were noncitizens’ and we’re just going to ignore it,” he said.

The libertarian-leaning congressman also warned against saying “Oh, the courts have decided the facts.

“The courts have not decided the facts. The courts never looked at the facts,” he said. “The courts don’t like [challenges to] elections. They stayed out of it by finding an excuse, standing or otherwise, to stay out of it.”