rand paul blocks anti-lynching bill, Senator Kamala Harris tees off on him

Appeal to his base of racists. There I finished your sentence for you

 

A lot of times the Republicans just don’t want to give the Democrats a “win” so they’ll pick someone to drop on a grenade. Usually it’s someone in a safe state who just doesn’t GAF. It has been Lindsay Graham quite often in the past two years but Rand Paul is a good candidate just because he’s so weird anyways people just assume he’ll vote against no brainer legislation.

This is just about politics and resembles more about what Mitch McConnell and Trump have done to the Republican Party than anything else. It’s just a game to these hacks.

 

took a bit of searching but here's the transcript of Rand Paul's remarks, followed by the transcript of Harris's and Booker's responses:

https://www.rev.com/blog/transcript...bill-with-rand-paul-kamala-harris-cory-booker

excerpt:

Sen. Rand Paul: (00:12)
Mr. President, I rise to ask expedited passage of H.R.35, the Emmett Till Anti-lynching Act, as amended. I seek to amend this legislation, not because I take it or I take lynching lightly, but because I take it seriously, and this legislation does not. Lynching is a tool of terror that claimed the lives of nearly 5,000 Americans between 1881 and 1968. But this bill would cheapen the meaning of lynching by defining it so broadly as to include a minor bruise or abrasion. Our nation’s history of racial terrorism demands more seriousness from us than that. W. E. B Du Bois wrote in his autobiography about the 1899 lynching of Sam Hose in Georgia.

Sen. Rand Paul: (01:03)
Du Bois wrote that after the lynching, Hose’s knuckles were viewed on display at a store in Mitchell Street in Atlanta. His liver and heart were even presented to the governor of Georgia as a souvenir. Sickening, grotesque, the images of lynching. In 1931, Raymond Gunn was lynched in Maryville, Missouri. The spectacle group drew a crowd of almost 4,000 people, including, if you can believe it, women and their children. In the tragedy of lynching, the author writes that one woman even held her little girl up so high, so she could better see the victim who was, quote, blazing on the roof. Sickening and grotesque, these images. In the summer of 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till was visiting family in Money, Mississippi, when he went to a country store and bought some candy. While in there, he was accused of flirting with a white woman. And for that offense, Emmett Till was kidnapped in the middle of the night and bludgeoned so badly that afterwards his body was unrecognizable.

Sen. Rand Paul: (02:13)
He could only be identified by the ring he was wearing. After seeing her son’s remains, his mother insisted on an open-casket funeral, so the whole world could see what the killers had done to her son. We must remember the murders of Emmett Till, Raymond Gunn, Sam Hose, and the thousands of others whose lives were destroyed by the barbarity of the lynch mob. But this bill will not do that. This bill would expand the meaning of lynching to include any bodily injury, including a cut, an abrasion, or a bruise. Physical pain, illness, or any other injury to the body, no matter how temporary. Mr. President, words have meaning. It would be a disgrace for the Congress of the United States to declare that a bruise is lynching, that an abrasion is lynching, that any injury to the body, no matter how temporary, is on par with the atrocities done to people like Emmett Till, Raymond Gunn, and Sam Hose, who were killed for no reason, but because they were black. To do that would demean their memory and cheapen the historic and horrific legacy of lynching in our country.

Sen. Rand Paul: (03:29)
As Congressman Amash stated, “To be clear, the bill does not make lynching a new federal hate crime. Murdering someone on account of their race or conspiring to do so is now illegal under federal law. It’s already a federal crime and it’s already a hate crime.” He’s right. We have had federal hate crime statutes for over 50 years, and it has been a federal hate crime to murder someone because of their race for over a decade. Additionally, murder is already a crime in 50 states. In fact, rather than consider a good-intentioned but symbolic bill, the Senate could immediately consider addressing qualified immunity and ending police militarization. We can and must do better.

Sen. Rand Paul: (04:22)
That is why no one in the Senate has been more involved in criminal justice reform than I have. No one has introduced more criminal justice reform bills. In my time in the Senate, I have authored or cosponsored at least 22 unique criminal justice reform bills. I am acutely aware of the injustices perpetrated year in and year out in our cities. But reform needs to be more than window dressing. That is why I’m on the floor today to offer expedited passage. Pass it today. The Emmett Till Anti-lynching Bill, as amended. Lynching is a particularly vicious kind of murder, and a federal law should treat it as such. For these reasons, the Emmett Till Anti-lynching Act should be adopted with my amendment, which would apply the criminal penalties for lynching only, and not for other crimes. Thank you, Mr. President.

Sen. Rand Paul: (05:27)
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R.35, which received by the House. I ask unanimous consent that my amendment at the desk be agreed to, the bill as amended be considered, read a third time and passed, and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.​