Rand Paul makes stop in Somerset

Oct. 18—With the elections just a few weeks away, Republican U.S. Senator Rand Paul took to the air in a "Get out and Vote" Tour of the Southeastern Kentucky area.

Paul spoke to a large gathering of supporters at the Lake Cumberland Regional Airport Terminal on Monday, prior to making similar visits at Middlesboro, Harlan and Hazard.

Paul and his wife Kelley greeted guests at the local airport terminal prior to speaking to the partisan Republican audience. Paul explained why he was taking to the air instead of driving.

"Probably 95% of the time we drive, but today we decided to fly because we're trying to go to a lot of places that take a while to get there by cars," Paul stated. "We're going from here to Middlesboro and then to Harlan, then Hazard, and we'll wind up in Pikeville."

Paul will take on Charles Booker (D) and two write-in candidates, Billy Ray Wilson and Charles Lee Thomason in the upcoming elections. Paul was elected to his first term in the U.S. Senate in 2010.

Paul will continue his speaking tour tomorrow with visits in Danville and Bowling Green. Paul plans to visit 12 cities in two days. Paul stated he has visited about 60 cities in the last two months.

"Everywhere we go, people are jazzed about the election," Paul told the large gathering. "Everybody's excited, and everybody wants to send (President Joe) Biden a message. And the only message you can send him is in a couple weeks on Tuesday. Everywhere we go people are unhappy about the prices or unhappy about inflation."

Paul also addressed other concerns he has been hearing from his Republican supporters.

"People are coming up to us and saying we're unhappy about there being two standards of justice," Paul explained. "It seems that if you're a Republican, there's one standard of justice. If you're a Democrat, there's really no standard of justice. You look back and you see what's happened with Hunter Biden — nothing. You look at Paul Manafort, who had about the same sort of accusations, he gets 20 years in prison. The definition of justice is equal justice before the law. We're supposed to be treated the same, no matter the color of your skin, no matter your religion, but also no matter your party."

Despite the fact that many of Pulaski County's political races had already decided in the primaries, Paul encouraged Republicans to get out and vote to send a message to the Democrats.

"I think we can and will win here in Kentucky, but we need Pulaski County," Paul encouraged the pro-Republican crowd. "We need you all to turn out. Unfortunately you have decided most of your races in the primary, so you don't have as many races. But we have to encourage people that this is your chance. You've decided a lot of your local offices and your state offices, but this is your chance to send a message to Washington."

After encouraging his local constituents to get out and vote, he also talked about the need for Republicans to question everything. Paul used the COVID virus as an example of why it is important to question or investigate everything.

"I, for one, am convinced that the virus came from the lab, and moved on," Paul stated. "I think it was probably an accident, but we should investigate it, mainly because we don't want to let this happen again.

"To me, it's extraordinary that the Democrats have had no investigations," Paul stated. "These are the people who investigate everything. They investigate whether plastic milk bottles cause cancer. We may have had hearings on dozens of things, but we've had zero hearings on where the virus came from. So we had a million people died here and six million people around the world and not one hearing?"

Paul talked about his plans in bringing in a special investigator and a scientific investigator to find out how and where the COVID virus came from.

"You look at the evidence, a mountain of evidence, saying it came from the lab," Paul stated. "We're gonna bring in (Dr. Anthony) Fauci, we're gonna have him under oath.

"I plan on appointing a special investigator, who will be in charge of this whole thing, as well as the scientific investigator," Paul stated. "We're gonna bring 'em all in. They're all gonna have to talk to us under oath. And we're gonna get to the bottom of this."

Paul also talked about some of the other key congressional races around the country and how the Republicans are stacking up.

"We had a fundraiser the other night for J.D. Vance in Ohio," Paul stated. "It's close, but he is consistently scoring ahead in the polls. It's tightening in Pennsylvania, it's tightening in Arizona. We're slightly ahead in Nevada. The House looks very good, and I think we're gonna win the House. One of the reasons we're gonna win the House is that Republicans or conservatives have been fleeing the high-tax states and moving south."

"So Florida and Texas continue to grow, while Ohio shrinks," Paul added. "Pennsylvania, Illinois, New York, California, all the states that are being run by Democrats, are shrinking because people are moving away so that the House Representatives' number shifts with them. They take Congressman with them."

Senator Rand Paul fielded a couple of questions from the audience before he jetted off to his next Southeastern Kentucky locale. In Paul's responses to the questions, he touched on such topics as illegal immigrants, the mistreatment and the unappreciated police forces in larger cities like Louisville, and how to undo some of the things done by Biden — like opening back up the Keystone Pipeline.

Politics aside, Paul shared with the local crowd what excited him most about our country moving forward.

"As I travel in our state, it really amazes me how resilient we are as a people, but also how resilient we are as an economy and the great wealth that's been created in this country over of years," Paul stated. "Look at the middle class in our country, they live pretty good. The poor in our country are equivalent to the middle class in most other countries. So all that's good. We need to teach our kids to sort of recognize where that comes from.

"I think our kids, particularly some that are being influenced by the left, think this is just automatic," Paul warned. "This will happen whether we have capitalism or socialism. We need to teach our kids the connection between our economic freedoms, religious freedoms, personal freedoms, and our wealth."