在乔·拜登总统就职和民主党控制美国参议院几天后，森兰德·保罗，R-Ky。，不会毫不含糊地说2020年的周日总统选举在没有提供证据的情况下，要求对欺诈行为进行调查。
“关于是否存在欺诈的争论应该发生，我们从来没有在法庭上出示过任何证据。保罗在美国广播公司的“本周”节目中说:“大多数案件都是因为缺乏法律地位而被驳回的，这是一种实际上不听取问题的程序方式。”
“保罗参议员，我必须阻止你，”美国广播公司首席新闻主播乔治·斯特凡诺普洛斯插话道。
“没有完美的选举，”斯特凡诺普洛斯继续说道。“经过调查、计数和重新计算，由(特朗普任命的司法部长)威廉·巴尔领导的司法部表示，没有广泛的欺诈证据。你就不能说一句话:‘这次选举不是偷来的吗?’"
这位肯塔基州参议员回答说:“我的建议是，如果我们希望对选举有更大的信心——75%的共和党人同意我的观点——我们确实需要考虑选举的完整性。”
保罗也不承认前总统唐纳德·特朗普在散布对选举的怀疑方面的作用。
特朗普竞选团队提起的大多数法庭案件都因缺乏证据而被驳回。在全国范围内，共和党和民主党的国务卿以及包括巴尔在内的联邦官员都表示，没有证据表明11月的选举中存在广泛的欺诈或安全问题。
当斯蒂芬诺普洛斯对巴尔否认普遍欺诈提出质疑时，保罗反驳道，“他说，是的。那是一个声明。没有对所有的州进行彻底的检查，看看我们有什么问题，看看他们能否解决。”
保罗告诉斯特凡诺普洛斯:“有很多问题，也有国务卿非法改变法律，这需要解决，我将更加努力地解决它，我不会被人们说‘哦，你是个骗子’所吓倒。”
斯特凡诺普洛斯回答说:“我坚持事实。事实没有两面性。我没有说这是一次完美的选举，我说结果是经过认证的，我说它不是偷来的。这是谎言。”
亚历克斯·埃德尔曼/普尔通过路透社
参议员兰德·保罗在安东尼·布林肯被任命为国防部长的听证会上倾听
尽管保罗是众多重复特朗普毫无根据的选民欺诈指控的共和党政治家之一，但这位肯塔基州参议员并不反对1月7日对选举团的认证，此前他曾表示，他认为国会不应推翻选举结果。
“现在，让我明确地说，我投票证明州选举人，因为我认为国会推翻这一点是错误的，”他说。
明尼苏达州参议员艾米·克洛布查尔(Amy Klobuchar)在“本周”的另一次采访中回应了保罗的言论。
“乔治，当我听兰德·保罗讲话时，我一直在想，‘伙计，这就是乔·拜登获胜的原因。’”她告诉斯特凡诺普洛斯。
布兰登·麦克德米德/路透社
参议员艾米·克洛布查尔在乔·拜登就任美国第46任总统时发表讲话
“美国人民现在正在挣扎。他们需要大流行救援，”克洛布查尔继续说道。“我完全相信，我们能够处理好这次弹劾审判，并且——就像美国人民正在做的那样——兼顾我们需要做的事情。
拜登宣誓就职不到一周，针对特朗普的弹劾条款将于周一提交参议院，审判预计将于2月8日开始。参议院民主党人正试图平衡即将到来的程序，让更多拜登的内阁人选获得批准，并推进总统的立法议程。
尽管早前有报道称麦康奈尔很高兴随着众议院的弹劾努力，越来越多的保守派法律专家和参议院共和党人质疑合宪性因为他是不再执政。
包括保罗在内的一些共和党参议员也认为，如果首席大法官约翰·罗伯茨不这样做主持弹劾审判尚不清楚听证会可能是非法的。
当斯特凡诺普洛斯质疑这些过程论点时，克洛布查尔说，“这是符合宪法的。我们很久以前就有过战争部长离任后受审的先例，显然，未来有一种补救措施会有所帮助，那就是禁止前总统特朗普再次竞选。”
斯特凡诺普洛斯还就是否有足够的共和党参议员投票给特朗普定罪向克洛布查尔施压。
“我的同事们还没有对他们将要做的事情做出承诺，我们昨天刚刚从《纽约时报》上得到消息，总统实际上正积极试图罢免自己的司法部长，并安插一名与他合谋的未知官僚。我认为，在接下来的几周内，我们会得到越来越多的证据，似乎他派了一群愤怒的暴徒去购物中心入侵国会大厦——没有试图阻止它——并杀害了一名警察还不够。我真的不知道你还需要知道什么，”这位明尼苏达州参议员补充道。
“相反，你会根据第14修正案寻求谴责或某种决议，以阻止特朗普总统再次竞选公职吗?”斯特凡诺普洛斯问道。
克洛布查尔拒绝排除任何可能性。
“我们专注于弹劾，但有许多选择。东西可以看。但我认为你的观众现在需要知道的是，乔治，我们必须同时做很多事情，”她说。
在参议院就即将到来的弹劾审判进行辩论的同时，民主党议程上的另一个关键问题是通过一项新的冠状病毒缓解法案——这是拜登立法优先事项的一个关键组成部分。总统仍在推动两党达成协议，尽管事实上共和党中的许多人——包括缅因州共和党参议员苏珊·科林斯等温和派——都表示，1.9万亿美元的总价格太贵了。
克洛布查尔反驳了关于该法案规模的争论，他说，“乔·拜登提出的数额，正是我们去年夏天讨论的数字。在某种程度上，(特朗普)政府正在谈论这些数字。”
Sen. Rand Paul continues making false claims of 2020 election fraud
Days after President Joe Biden took office and the Democrats took control of the U.S. Senate, Sen.Rand Paul, R-Ky., would not unequivocally say Sunday that the 2020presidential electionwas not stolen and called for an investigation of fraud, without providing evidence.
"The debate over whether or not there was fraud should occur, we never had any presentation in court where we actually looked at the evidence. Most of the cases were thrown out for lack of standing, which is a procedural way of not actually hearing the question," Paul said on ABC's "This Week."
"Sen. Paul, I have to stop you there," ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos interjected.
"No election is perfect," Stephanopoulos continued. "After investigations, counts and recounts, the Department of Justice -- led by (Trump-appointed Attorney General) William Barr -- said there's no widespread evidence of fraud. Can't you just say the words: 'This election was not stolen?'"
The Kentucky senator responded, "What I would suggest is that if we want greater confidence in our elections -- and 75% of Republicans agree with me -- is that we do need to look at election integrity."
Paul also did notacknowledge former President Donald Trump's role in sowing doubts about the election.
The majority of the court cases filed by the Trump campaign were thrown out due to lack of evidence. Across the country, secretaries of state, both Republican and Democrat,andfederal officials-- includingBarr-- haveallsaidthat there was no evidence of widespread fraud or security concerns in November's election.
When challenged by Stephanopoulos on Barr's denial of widespread fraud, Paul retorted, "He said that, yes. That was a pronouncement.There's been no examination -- thorough examination -- of all the states to see what problems we had and see if they could fix them."
"There were lots of problems and there were secretaries of state, who illegally changed the law and that needs to be fixed, and I'm going to work harder to fix it and I will not be cowed by people saying 'oh, you're a liar,'" Paul told Stephanopoulos.
Stephanopoulos responded, "I'm standing by facts. There are not two sides to facts. I did not say this was a perfect election, I said the results were certified, I said it was not stolen. It is a lie."
While Paul was one of the many Republican politicians who repeatedTrump'sunfoundedallegations of voter fraud, the Kentucky senator did not object to the certification of the Electoral College on Jan. 7and has said previously that he thinks Congress should not overturn results.
"Now, let me say to be clear, I voted to certify the state electors because I think it would be wrong for Congress to overturn that," he said.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., responded to Paul's remarks in a separate interview on "This Week."
"As I listened to Rand Paul, George, I just kept thinking, 'man, this is why Joe Biden won,'" she told Stephanopoulos.
"American people right now are struggling. They need pandemic relief," Klobuchar continued. "I thoroughly believe that we can handle this impeachment trial and -- just as the American people are doing -- juggle what we need to get done.
With less than a week since Biden's swearing in, the article of impeachment against Trump is set to be delivered to the Senate Monday and the trial is expected to begin the week of Feb. 8. Senate Democrats are trying to balance the upcoming proceedings with getting more of Biden's Cabinet picks approved and pushing forward on the president's legislative agenda.
Despite earlier reports that McConnellwas pleasedwith the House of Representatives' impeachment efforts, a growing number of conservative legal experts and Republicans in the Senate havechallenged the constitutionalityof holding a trial for Trump since he isno longer in office.
Some Republican senators, including Paul, have also argued that if Chief Justice John Roberts does notpreside over the impeachment trial-- which remains unclear -- the hearings could be illegitimate.
Whenchallengedby Stephanopoulos aboutthose process arguments,Klobuchar said, "It is constitutional. We have precedent from way back when a secretary of war was tried after he had left office and, obviously, there's a remedy that would help in the future which would ban former President Trump from running again."
Stephanopoulos also pressed Klobuchar about whether there were enough GOP senators to vote to convict Trump.
"My colleagues have not yet committed about what they're going to do and the news we just got out of The New York Times yesterday that the president was actually actively trying to take out his own attorney general and put in an unknown bureaucrat conspiring with him. I think we're going to get more and more evidence over the next few weeks as if it's not enough that he's sent an angry mob down the Mall to invade the Capitol -- didn't try to stop it -- and a police officer was killed. I don't really know what else you need to know," the Minnesota senator added.
"Would you pursue, instead, either a censure or some kind of a resolution under the 14th Amendment to prevent President Trump from running for office again?" Stephanopoulos asked.
Klobuchar refused to rule anything out.
"We're focused on impeachment, but there are many options. Things can be looked at. But I think the thing that your viewers need to know right now, George, is that we must do many things at once," she said.
While the Senate debates the impending impeachment trial, also critical on the Democrats' agenda is passing a new coronavirus relief bill -- a key component of Biden's legislative priorities. The president is still pushing for a bipartisan arrangement, despite the fact that many in the GOP -- including moderates like Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine -- have said that the overall $1.9 trillion price tag is too expensive.
Klobuchar pushed back against arguments over the size of the bill, saying "the amount that Joe Biden has proposed, that's exactly the numbers we were talking about last summer. And at some point, the (Trump) administration was talking those numbers."
