Sen. Paul decries Capitol riot as 'chaos and anarchy that needs to be stopped'

By Joshua Nelson

Published January 06, 2021

Sen. Rand Paul: Electoral College must be settled by the states

Conservatives should support the Electoral College result of the 2020 election, regardless of objections by President Trump, because the institution protects the rights of states, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told "The Story" Wednesday.

"Conservatives should know that the Electoral College is something we support because it supports state rights to run the elections," Paul told host Martha MacCallum. "When there is a problem, it is going to have to be fixed by the states. The fix isn’t up here [in Washington]."

Paul added that those who believe the Electoral College result can be changed by the federal government after an election is an "absurdity."

"It is really a mistake for people to believe that," he said. "It never happened before, it was never intended to happen, and, if it did, it would be overturning everything that we cherished about state’s rights, that these powers are something that are left to the states and the people and they don’t belong to the federal government."

Sen. Paul: Capitol riot was ‘not a good day for the country’

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The joint session of Congress counting the votes of the Electoral College was halted for more than six hours Wednesday after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building, leading to chaos and confrontation that led to the fatal shooting of a female protester.

Lawmakers were told to put on gas masks and shelter in place as law enforcement officers tried to restore order amid the chaos.

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"Can you imagine what would happen to this country if every four years we had Congress overturning an election? It would be chaos," said Paul, who went on to blast the demonstrations as "chaos and anarchy that needs to be stopped."

"I have a lot of the same complaints [as Trump]," he said. "I want the elections to be better, but, I’ll spend the next two years lobbying state legislators to try to fix the election law so that this doesn’t happen again."

Fox News’ Chad Pergram, John Roberts, Jake Gibson, Jacqui Heinrich and Kelly Phares contributed to this report.

Joshua Q. Nelson is a reporter for Fox News Digital.

Joshua focuses on cultural trends, education, and public policy. He extensively covered reparations developments across the U.S., the Department of Education, and immigration issues.

Joining Fox News Digital in 2019, he previously graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in Political Science and received the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Public Policy Certificate.

Story tips can be sent to joshua.nelson@fox.com and Joshua can be followed on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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