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'Bizarre': Why did Rand Paul miss the Ukraine foreign aid vote?

David Catanese, McClatchy Washington Bureau on

Published in News & Features

Kentucky’s U.S. Sen. Rand Paul was among three senators who missed Tuesday’s vote on the $95 billion foreign aid package providing weapons and equipment to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

Two days later and his office won’t explain why.

The libertarian anti-interventionist was an outspoken critic of the supplemental spending measure throughout the seven-month debate in Congress. He railed against the spending as a “ludicrous” allocation given mounting U.S. debt.

He name-checked home-state colleague Mitch McConnell in his attack on the war funding this winter.

“(McConnell is) completely out of touch with Kentucky Republicans, with conservative Republicans; advocating for all this money to go to Ukraine – We’re not for that, nobody in Kentucky’s for that,” Paul told FOX broadcaster Laura Ingraham in early February.

When asked who would win a Senate race between McConnell and Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear if the election were held that day, Paul replied: “Beshear.”

 

Speculation built that Paul was among those attempting to at least delay the package’s inevitable passage during Tuesday’s Senate session.

And then he failed to show up altogether.

“It’s bizarre that Rand Paul and Tommy Tuberville apparently could not be bothered to vote,” wrote independent journalist Michael Tracey on X.com.

He often weighs in on national political issues, referring to the Kentuckian and another Republican from Alabama.

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