Rand Paul Filibuster Supported By Twitter, Jon Stewart [Video]
Rand Paul’s filibuster yesterday prompted the hashtag #StandWithRand to trend all night and into the morning on Twitter, and even progressive host of The Daily Show Jon Stewart took a moment to praise the Kentucky Republican for his stand on civil liberties.
Rand Paul’s filibuster over the confirmation of John Brennan as CIA Director outlasted the previous filibuster by Vermont’s Sen. Bernie Sanders, clocking in at just under 13 hours when it ended last night at 12:40 AM.
Close to the end of Rand Paul’s filibuster, Stewart’s show aired — although it is taped at around 7 PM EST. During the segment, Stewart begins by observing that it “looks like we got us a good old-fashioned, actual talky filibuster” and told the audience:
“I can’t say that I agree with Rand Paul about everything, but as issues go, drone oversight is certainly one worth kicking up a fuss for.”
In the segment, Stewart was mostly encouraging regarding Sen. Paul’s filibuster efforts, describing the session as meant to “draw a little attention to the issue of the execution of executive executions” and saying Paul “executed an old-school filibuster.”
To preface the segment on The Daily Show, Stewart explains the precipitate to Rand Paul’s filibuster as well as the #StandWithRand Twitter campaign.
Stewart says:
“Rand Paul had sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking just a simple question: Can the president use a drone to take out an American citizen on U.S. soil? You would think he would get a letter back like, ‘No, way.’ Holder writes him back a letter that never directingly addressing the question kind of, sort of implied that hypothetically in the right — yes, yes, we can do that. We can do that probably won’t, but yes.”
Stewart further noted that Sen. Paul was “out there talking,” and that the filibuster “isn’t one of these, ‘eh, I’m not going to do anything’ ” versions of the infrequently employed senatorial tactic.
Usually a critic of issues of the sort Paul espouses, Stewart observed the Kentucky lawmaker was “using [the] filibuster the way it is meant to be used.”
