title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

text: During its first day of wide release, "Wolverine" took in an estimated $35 million, with almost $5 million of that from midnight showings. The earnings placed the film as the 16th highest-grossing opening day ever (22nd with ticket-price inflation). It went on to be number one film at the box office with a total of $85 million. Among summer kick-offs, it ranked fifth behind "Spider-Man", "X2", "Spider-Man 3", and "Iron Man" and it was in the top ten of comic book adaptations. The opening was lower than the last film in the franchise, "X-Men: The Last Stand", as well as "X2", but higher than "X-Men", the first film in the series.


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

text: The worldwide opening was over $158.1 million, but Fox stated that some markets underperformed, mostly due to the leaked workprint in countries with illegal downloading problems. However, in an article for the "piracy issue" of "Screen International" magazine, film critic John Hazelton was doubtful of this explanation, writing that the film's initial performance was "uncertain" as the outbreak of swine flu in territories with the worst copyright infringement problems means that other territories did not compare at all.


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

text: While it has received mixed reviews from critics, the film has been a financial success at the box office. According to Box Office Mojo "Wolverine" has grossed approximately $179,883,157 in the United States and Canada. It took in another $193,179,707 in other territories, giving it a worldwide total of $373,062,864.


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

text: On September 15, 2009, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" on DVD and Blu-ray disc. The two-disc Blu-ray includes commentary by Hood, another commentary by producers Lauren Shuler Donner and Ralph Winter, the featurette "The Roots of Wolverine: A Conversation with X-Men creators Stan Lee and Len Wein", the featurette "Wolverine Unleashed: The Complete Origins", 10 character chronicles, two more featurettes, a trivia track, deleted scenes with commentary from Hood, two alternate sequences, a Fox Movie Channel premiere featurette and imdb BD Live technology. Disc two of the set includes a digital copy. In addition, a Wal-Mart exclusive 3-disc set, which includes a standard DVD copy of the film was also released. The two-DVD special edition includes the two commentaries, the featurette with Stan Lee and Len Wein, an origins featurette, deleted and alternate scenes, and an anti-smoking PSA on disc one; disc two has a digital copy of the film. The single-disc DVD release has the origins featurette and anti-smoking PSA.


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

text: "Wolverine" was the highest selling and most rented DVD release of the week, selling over three million copies, 850,000 of them on Blu-ray. Through its first six weeks the DVD has sold 3.79 million copies, generating $64.27 million in sales.


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

text: On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads, "Though Hugh Jackman gives his all, he can't help "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" overcome a cliche-ridden script and familiar narrative." On Metacritic the film has a score of 40 out of 100, based on reviews from 39 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

text: Richard Corliss of "TIME" commented on the film's standing among other Marvel films, saying that it is "an O.K., not great, Marvel movie that tells the early story of the prime X-Man, and attempts to make it climax in a perfect coupling with the start of the known trilogy." He also said that "superhero mythologies can be so complicated, only a lonely comic-book-reading kid could make sense of it all." James Mullinger of "GQ" also commented on the structure of the story in saying that the "film clumsily tries to explain the origins of James [Howlett], AKA Wolverine, which had wisely only ever been briefly referred to in the original "X-Men" saga. In doing so, it creates a fairly bland plot which is full of holes." Lou Lumenick of the "New York Post" was generally more favorable towards "Origins", stating "Fortunately, Jackman is well-matched with Schreiber, who can sneer with the best of them and wears fangs well. The two have three spectacular battles together before squaring off against a formidable enemy atop a nuclear reactor." Peter Rainer of "The Christian Science Monitor" also praised Jackman's performance, saying that "Hugh Jackman demonstrates that you can segue effortlessly from a tuxedoed song-and-dance man at the Oscars to a feral gent with adamantium claws and "berserker rage."" Claudia Puig of "USA Today" considered the movie "well-acted, with spectacular action and witty one-liners".


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

text: Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four and asked about the title character, "Why should I care about this guy? He feels no pain and nothing can kill him, so therefore he's essentially a story device for action sequences." James Berardinelli gave "Wolverine" two and a half stars out of four, calling the action scenes competently executed but not memorable, and considering that when dealing with Wolverine's past "there's little creativity evident in the way those blanks are filled in", and that the revelations made Wolverine "less compelling". Comparatively, Bill Gibron of AMC's Filmcritic.com website gave the film a positive "4.0 out of 5 stars," saying that although Hugh Jackman is "capable of carrying even the most mediocre effort, he singlehandedly makes "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" an excellent start to the summer 2009 season." He predicted "there will be purists who balk at how Hood and his screenwriters mangle and manipulate the mythology;" and further said that "any ending which leaves several characters unexplained and unaccounted for can't really seal the full entertainment deal."


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

text: Regarding "Wolverine" within the context of the "X-Men" film series, Tom Charity of CNN commented: "Serviceable but inescapably redundant, this "Wolverine" movie does just enough to keep the "X-Men" franchise on life support, but the filmmakers will have to come up with some evolutionary changes soon if it's going to escape X-tinction." Similarly, A. O. Scott of "The New York Times" expressed that ""X-Men Origins: Wolverine" will most likely manage to cash in on the popularity of the earlier episodes, but it is the latest evidence that the superhero movie is suffering from serious imaginative fatigue." On a more negative note, Philip French of "The Observer" said that the film's "dull, bone-crushing, special-effects stuff" is "of interest only to hardcore fans who've probably read it all in Marvel comics."


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

text: Sukhdev Sandhu of "The Daily Telegraph" stated that ""Wolverine" is an artificial stimulus package of the most unsatisfying kind. Aggressively advertised and hyped to the hills, it will no doubt attract full houses at first; after that though, when word-of-mouth buzz-kill goes into overdrive, there's bound to be widespread deflation and a palpable feeling of being conned." Similarly, Orlando Parfitt of IGN (UK) praised the performances of the actors and the action scenes, but stated that the film felt underdeveloped: "There's an enjoyable time to be had with "Wolverine", but it's also somewhat unsatisfying." Furthermore, Scott Mendelson of "The Huffington Post" gave the film a grade of "D", noting that "Wolverine was the lead character of [the "X-Men"] films, and we've already learned everything we need to know from the films in said franchise," adding that "the extra information given here actually serves to make the character of Logan/Wolverine less interesting." Steven Rea also felt that the film injured the character by proving that "how the hero acquired his special powers turns out to be a whole lot less interesting than what he does with them", while also being "a mash-up of meaningless combat sequences (meaningless because Logan/Wolverine is just about unstoppable), sub-par visual effects, template backstory, and some goofy Liev Schreiber-as-a-villain thespianizing".


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

text: Hugh Jackman later confessed being unhappy with the final result of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine". The actor wanted primarily a film that would deepen the Wolverine character, but "somehow the first Wolverine movie ended up looking like the fourth X-Men — just with different characters." He tried to avert the same results while doing the character's next solo film: 2013's "The Wolverine".


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

text: Two cases exist of adolescents injecting themselves with elemental mercury after having seen "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" and incorrectly believing this would convert their bones to metal similar to how Wolverine obtains his adamantium skeleton.


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

text: "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" was set to be the first of a series of "X-Men Origins" prequels, with the other being focused on Erik Lensherr / Magneto, however, this entered development hell and was eventually canceled with elements instead being incorporated in "" (2011).


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

text: A second "Wolverine" film titled "The Wolverine" (2013) was set years after "" (2006) as a standalone sequel. "" (2014) was confirmed to erase the events of "Wolverine" through retroactive continuity. A third "Wolverine" film titled "Logan" was released on March 3, 2017, as Hugh Jackman's last time portraying the character. At one time, Liev Schreiber was discussed as being in talks to reprise his role in this third film.


title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

text: The spin-off film "Deadpool" (2016) and its sequel "Deadpool 2" (2018) feature Ryan Reynolds reprising his role as Deadpool, albeit in a way more faithful to the comics. Several jokes in both films are aimed at "Wolverine" due to the negative reaction to Weapon XI's portrayal. A mid-credits scene in "Deadpool 2" depicts Deadpool traveling backwards in time to the events of "Wolverine" to unceremoniously kill the widely criticized interpretation of the character.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense technology company. With 90,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military technology providers. The firm ranks on the 2022 "Fortune" 500 list of America's largest corporations.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: Northrop Grumman and its industry partners have won the Collier Trophy eight times, most recently for developing the X-47B, the first unmanned, autonomous air system to operate from an aircraft carrier.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: Northrop Grumman currently leads the development of the B-21 Raider, a long-range, stealth strategic bomber that can drop conventional and nuclear weapons; it will replace Northrop's own B-2 Spirit, the world's only known stealth bomber. Among its other current projects are development and production of the James Webb Space Telescope, an orbiting observatory launched in 2021, and production of the solid rocket boosters for NASA's Space Launch System program. It was the sole bidder on the Air Force's Ground Based Strategic Deterrent program, which aims to develop and build a new intercontinental ballistic missile.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: Northrop Grumman is made up of four main business sectors: Aeronautics Systems, Defense Systems, Mission Systems and Space Systems. Prior to Northrop Grumman's reorganization of its divisions on January 1, 2020, the divisions were: Aerospace Systems, Mission Systems, Technology Services, and Innovation Systems.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: Aeronautics Systems, headquartered in Redondo Beach, California, produces aircraft, spacecraft, high-energy laser systems and microelectronics for the U.S. and other nations. This includes surveillance and reconnaissance, protected communications, intelligence, battle management, strike operations, electronic warfare, and missile defense to Earth observation, space science and space exploration. The B-2 Spirit strategic bomber, the E-8C Joint STARS surveillance aircraft, the RQ-4 Global Hawk, and the T-38 Talon supersonic trainer are used by the US Air Force. The US Army uses Northrop Grumman's RQ-5 Hunter unmanned air vehicle, which has been in operational use since 1995. The U.S. Navy uses Northrop Grumman-built aerial vehicles such as the BQM-74 Chukar, RQ-4 Global Hawk-based MQ-4C Triton, MQ-8 Fire Scout, Grumman C-2 Greyhound, Grumman E-2 Hawkeye, and the EA-6B Prowler. Northrop Grumman provides major components and assemblies for different aircraft such as F/A-18 Hornet, F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, EA-18G Growler, and the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. Aerospace systems also serves as the contractor for numerous space payloads and is the prime contractor for the James Webb Space Telescope


title: Northrop Grumman

text: Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, headquartered in Linthicum, Maryland creates military radar, sensors, and related products, including C4I radar systems for air defense, Airspace Management radar systems such as AMASS, and battlefield surveillance systems like the Airborne Reconnaissance Low (ARL). Tactical aircraft sensors include the AN/APG-68 radar, the AN/APG-80 AESA radar, and the AN/APG-83 AESA radar upgrade for the F-16 Fighting Falcon, the AN/APG-77 AESA radar for the F-22 Raptor, and the AN/APG-81 AESA radar for the F-35 Lightning II, and the AN/AAQ-37 electro-optical Distributed Aperture System (DAS) for the F-35, and the APQ-164 Passive Electronically Scanned Array (PESA) radar for the B-1 Lancer. Mission Systems produces and maintains the AWACS aerial surveillance systems for the U.S., the United Kingdom, NATO, Japan, and others. Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor for the development and integration of the Air Force's $2-billion Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program. Northrop Grumman also supports the U.S. ballistic missile program, integrates various command, control and intelligence systems, and provides technical and management services, to governmental and military customers, all with an emphasis on cybersecurity. Many other smaller products are made by Northrop Grumman, such as night vision goggles and secure communications equipment.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: The Defense Systems sector headquartered in McLean, Virginia (with a Herndon mailing address,) works on "the entire life cycle of civil and defense platforms and capabilities through a range of services". Vinnell, a Northrop Grumman subsidiary, provides training and communications for the military. In 2003, it landed a $48 million contract to train the Iraqi Army. In 2005 the company won a $2 billion contract with Virginia to overhaul most of the state's IT operations. Later that year, the United Kingdom paid $1.2 billion in a contract with the company to provide maintenance of its AWACS radar.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: On June 7, 2018, the acquisition of Orbital ATK was completed and the former company was absorbed in Northrop Grumman as a new business sector called Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems. With this acquisition, Northrop Grumman got more involved in the space industry, which now includes the construction and launch of the Cygnus spacecraft. Until 2020 the firm was developing the OmegA space launch vehicle, intended to carry the U.S. government's national security satellites into space. In September 2019 the company changed the name of the sector to Space Systems, effective in January 2020. On August 8, 2022, Northrop Grumman announced it was moving production of the engines and structures for its Antares rockets to the U.S. from Russia and Ukraine. The move of Antares production fully to the U.S. will happen through a partnership with Texas-based Firefly Aerospace. Northrop Grumman had purchased Russian RD-181 engines to power the Antares 230+ series, and the rocket’s main body was manufactured by Ukraine’s Yuzhmash State Enterprise. The new arrangement mainly resolves the break in Antares manufacturing caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. But in addition to salvaging the Antares rocket series, the cost-sharing deal also helps ensure NASA’s cargo missions to the International Space Station keep flying regularly and brings muscle to Firefly’s plan to build a larger rocket called Beta.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: Northrop Grumman and Firefly Aerospace will jointly produce an upgraded version of the Antares rocket, which will be known as the Antares 330. Northrop will provide the A330′s upper stage, avionics, software and launch site operations. Firefly will supply seven engines and build the A330′s largest structure, the first stage booster. Northrop and Firefly’s partnership also has a longer-term goal of building a new rocket, which the companies for now are calling MLV, or medium launch vehicle.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: Remotec, a subsidiary, is a manufacturer of remote control vehicles for explosive ordnance disposal and hazardous material handling. A UK-based subsidiary, Park Air Systems, provides VHF and UHF ground-to-air communications systems for the civil and defense markets. Northrop Grumman has also worked closely with Antenna Associates, Inc., a manufacturer of Identification friend or foe (IFF)/Secondary Surveillance Radar (SSR) antennas located in Massachusetts.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In August 2007, Northrop Grumman acquired Scaled Composites in which it had previously owned a 40% stake.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In 2008, Northrop Grumman began working with DHS Systems LLC, manufacturer of the Deployable Rapid Assembly Shelter (DRASH) in New York, as part of the U.S. Army's Standard Integrated Command Post System program.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: Northrop Grumman can trace its lineage back to the beginning of the 20th century when the Grumman Corporation was founded on Long Island, New York. During World War II it built all American Navy aircraft. After the war it branched out into making the first aluminum canoes using left-over materials no longer needed for aircraft. Later the firm created a myriad of products such as ballistic missiles, all-weather radars, the Apollo Lunar Module, land and sea-based fighter aircraft and Stealth bombers. Originally formed in California in 1939 by Jack Northrop, the Northrop Corporation was reincorporated in Delaware in 1985. After the end of the Cold War, Northrop went on a series of acquisitions where they bought noteworthy companies such as Grumman Aerospace, Westinghouse and TRW Inc. in addition to a number of other enterprises. In 2018, Northrop Grumman completed the purchase of Orbital ATK, which has since been renamed to Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems. Today, Northrop Grumman is one of the largest defense contractors in the world.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In 1994, Northrop Aircraft bought Grumman Aerospace, which built the Apollo Lunar Module to create Northrop Grumman (NG) at a cost of $2.1 billion. The company purchased the remaining 51% interest in "Vought Aircraft Company" (Vought) in August 1994 for $130 million taking full control of the company after it had purchased an initial 49% interest in September 1992 for $45 million.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In 1996, the new company acquired substantially all of the defence and electronics systems business of "Westinghouse Electric Corporation," Westinghouse Electronic Systems, a major manufacturer of radar systems, for $2.9 billion, and Xetron Corporation. In 1997, the defense computer contractor Logicon was added, which had acquired Geodynamics Corporation in March 1996 and Syscon Corporation in February 1995.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: Northrop was the prime contractor on the radical YF-23 which was one of the two airplanes down selected for the Advanced Tactical Fighter but would eventually lose out to the F-22 Raptor. Northrop would later partner with Lockheed on the F-35 and now serves as a principal member of the Lockheed Martin industry led team.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In 1998, a merger between Northrop Grumman and competitor Lockheed Martin was considered but abandoned after resistance from the Department of Defense and Department of Justice. That same year, it acquired Inter-National Research Institute Inc. In 1999, the company acquired Teledyne Ryan, developer of surveillance systems and unmanned aircraft, California Microwave, Inc., and the Data Procurement Corporation. On March 19, 1999, Northrop Grumman announced to restate its fourth-quarter results downward to a net loss because of problems related to its dealings with start-up satellite launch company Kistler Aerospace Corp. In 1999, Northrop Grumman and SAIC created AMSEC LLC as a joint venture, which grew "from $100 million in revenue in 2000 to approximately $500 million in fiscal year 2007."


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In 2000, NG acquired Federal Data Corporation, Navia Aviation As, Comptek Research, Inc., and Sterling Software, Inc.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In 2001, the company acquired Litton Industries, a shipbuilder and defense electronics systems provider for the U.S. Navy. During the acquisition process, a new Delaware holding company, NNG, Inc., was formed, which merged with Northrop Grumman through a one-for-one common shares exchange in April 2001. Both Northrop Grumman and Litton became subsidiaries of the new holding company. The original Northrop Grumman Corporation then changed its name to "Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation"; the holding company, NNG, Inc., changed its name to "Northrop Grumman Corporation". Later that year, Newport News Shipbuilding was added.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: On November 1, 2001, Northrop Grumman restated its third-quarter profit after stopping work on two ships for American Classic Voyages, which filed for bankruptcy protection.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In 2002, Northrop Grumman acquired TRW Inc., which had acquired Braddock Dunn & McDonald (BDM) in 1997, and became the Space Technology sector based in Redondo Beach, California, and the Mission Systems sector based in Reston, Virginia, with sole interest in their space systems and laser systems manufacturing. The Aeronautical division was sold to Goodrich, and the automotive divisions were spun off and retained the TRW name.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: Northrop Grumman partnered with EADS from the mid-2000s to offer the KC-30 Multi Role Tanker Transport aircraft in the U.S. Air Force's KC-X tanker competition. In February 2008 the U.S. Air Force chose KC-30, but in September 2008 the Defense Department stopped the tanker program and in March 2010, Northrop Grumman announced it was withdrawing from the competition, deeming the revised requirements to be weighted in favor of the Boeing KC-46.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: On January 1, 2006, Northrop Grumman opened its business sector called 'Technical Services'. Northrop Grumman and Boeing collaborated on a design concept for NASA's upcoming Orion spacecraft (previously the Crew Exploration Vehicle), but the contract went to rival Lockheed Martin on August 31, 2006.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In 2006, Northrop Grumman had intended to bid for the U.S. Air Force's Next-Generation Bomber. Though it has not built a large manned aircraft since wrapping up B-2 Spirit production in the 1990s, the company has "been working hard to turn that perception around, with the skills and capabilities that back it up." However, by 2009, the teams working on this were told to close, as USAF's focus turned to a long-range strike instead. Northrop Grumman was one of two teams competing for the Long Range Strike Bomber, and in October 2015 won the contract for the Long Range Strike Bomber.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In 2007, Northrop Grumman created 'National Workforce Centers' as an alternative to offshoring. Locations are Auburn, Alabama; Corsicana, Texas; Fairmont, West Virginia; Helena, Montana; Johnstown, Pennsylvania; and Lebanon, Virginia. The Rapid City, South Dakota location closed in January 2012.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In July 2008, three of four Northrop Grumman employees (Thomas Howes, Marc Gonsalves and Keith Stansell) were freed during Operation Jaque after five years of captivity following their aircraft crash in the Colombian jungle. The fourth employee, Tom Janis, had been killed by the FARC shortly after the crash in 2003.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In January 2008, Northrop Grumman combined its Newport News and Ship Systems sectors into a new business unit named Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding. On March 31, 2011, this was spun off as Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc ().


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In November 2010, NASA selected Northrop Grumman for consideration of potential contract awards for heavy lift launch vehicle system concepts, and propulsion technologies.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: From 2013, Northrop Grumman participates in the DARPA Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node (TERN) program, and received $2.9 million for Phase 1 and $19 million for Phase 2. The TERN program attempts to launch and recover a UAV from mid-size ships to provide long distance intelligence gathering.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In July 2013, Northrop Grumman won a training-simulation contract potentially worth $490 million to support the U.S. Air Force's next-generation aerial warfare virtual-training network.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In October 2015, the US Military announced it had awarded Northrop Grumman the contract for the successor to the B-1 and B-52, subsequently identified as the B-21. The initial value is $21.4 billion, and could eventually be worth up to $80 billion.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In September 2017, Northrop announced its intention to acquire missile and rocket manufacturer Orbital ATK Inc for $9.2 billion: $7.8 billion in cash plus $1.4 billion in net debt. On November 29, 2017, the acquisition was approved by Orbital ATK stockholders and on June 6, 2018 the merger closed after final FTC approval. The acquired company assets and naming were absorbed and become a division named Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In September 2020, Northrop Grumman won a $298 million sole-source contract for the Evolved Strategic Satcom program, an anti-jam communications satellite program intended to replace the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite program where Northrop Grumman was a subcontractor to Lockheed Martin.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In December 2020, Northrop sold its federal IT and mission support business to Veritas Capital for $3.4 billion in cash. Veritas placed this purchase in its Peraton subsidiary. The sale closed in February 2021.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: The Mars Ascent Propulsion System for Mars sample-return mission Ascent Vehicle contract was awarded to Northrop Grumman on March 5, 2021. For this Northrop Grumman to make a 3–meter long, two-stage, solid-fueled Mars ascent rocket for the Mars Sample Return mission. This mission is to collect Perseverance's samples for return to Earth.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In August 2022, Northrop Grumman announced it was moving production of the engines and structures for its Antares rockets to the U.S. from Russia and Ukraine. The move of Antares production fully to the U.S. will happen through a partnership with Texas-based Firefly Aerospace. Northrop Grumman had purchased Russian RD-181 engines to power the Antares 230+ series, and the rocket’s main body was manufactured by Ukraine’s Yuzhmash State Enterprise.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: From 1990 to 2003, before the merger with Grumman in 1994, Kent Kresa was the CEO of the company, who led the serial-acquisition strategy with a total of 15 additional acquisitions from 1994 to 2003, including Litton, Logicon, Westinghouse's defense electronics business, Ryan Aeronautical and Newport News Shipbuilding, and TRW. He then retired in 2003 at age 65.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In 2003 Ronald Sugar, the former chief operating officer, took over as CEO. Effective October 1, 2003, Sugar also served as the company chairman of the board.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In November 2015, Gloria Flach was named COO. She is the former president of the company's electric services sector.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: On July 12, 2018, Wes Bush announced that he would step down as CEO effective January 1, 2019, and would remain chairman of the board until July 2019. His successor is Kathy J. Warden, who has served in numerous roles at the company, most recently president and COO.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: Since 2011, Northrop Grumman's headquarters are in West Falls Church, Virginia (previously Jefferson), unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: Prior to 2010, the company was headquartered in Century City, Los Angeles, but announced plans on January 4, 2010 to move to the Washington Metropolitan Area by 2011 to be closer to government customers. CEO Wesley Bush stated that the company needed to be located close to Capitol Hill lawmakers and officials from intelligence and military communities. Northrop Grumman considered sites in Washington, D.C. and in suburbs in Maryland and Virginia. The "Los Angeles Business Journal" wrote "In a way, the announcement was not a surprise" due to the trend of aerospace companies moving to the DC area, the fact that the new CEO is from West Virginia and that CEOs often move corporate headquarters to places that they want the headquarters located. A Los Angeles area economic development consultant described the move announcement as a "structural failure at all levels for Los Angeles County."


title: Northrop Grumman

text: District of Columbia economic development officials were "pitching the city's urban hipness and proximity to Capitol Hill power brokers" to Northrop Grumman. Maryland promoted its highly educated workforce and its large number of federal facilities, while Virginia marketed itself as a state with relatively low taxes.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In July 2010, the company announced its purchase of an existing building in Fairfax County and its move in summer 2011. It planned to consolidate its Century City headquarters and its existing Arlington County, Virginia, offices into the new headquarters. It employed about 40,000 in the Washington DC metropolitan area, including DC and surrounding Maryland and Virginia.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: Northrop Grumman was named Forbes's Company of the Year in 2002. Forbes's announcement credited the company with "master[ing] the art of innovation." As of 2019, the company is included on Forbes' list of "America's Best Large Employers".


title: Northrop Grumman

text: Since 2005 Northrop Grumman credits itself with sponsoring educational programs and donating thousands of dollars to various charities.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: Many members of the U.S. government have attended company events and spoken highly of the company and its contributions, for example John McCain. In December 2007, Northrop Grumman Corporation was awarded the Ron Brown Award for Corporate Leadership, the only presidential award recognizing companies for outstanding achievement in employee and community relations.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In 2000, Northrop Grumman was designated a Primary Responsible Party under federal Superfund laws at 13 hazardous waste sites and under state Superfund laws at eight sites. The corporation has also been linked to 52 superfund toxic waste sites. Based on 2008 data, Northrop Grumman was the 62nd-largest corporate producer of air pollution in the United States, per the Political Economy Research Institute of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Northrop Grumman facilities released more than 23,798 pounds of toxic chemicals into the air in that year.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In 2002, the Bethpage Community Park in Bethpage, New York, owned by the company until the 1960s, was closed due to soil contamination with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The company dumped cadmium, arsenic, chromium-tainted sludge, solvents, paints and PCBs at the site between 1949 and 1962. Additionally, two toxic chemical plumes centered under Bethpage Community Park and other surrounding land formerly owned by Grumman or Northrop Grumman have spread to under neighboring houses. In November 2013, the Bethpage Water District filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Northrop Grumman in Federal Court for the Eastern District of New York for contaminating the groundwater in Bethpage.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In 2003, the company was among 84 parties with which the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the state of New York reached an estimated US$15 million settlement for the rehabilitation of the Mattiace Petrochemical Company Superfund site in Glen Cove, Long Island. In the same year, Northrop Grumman agreed to pay $33,214 after EPA inspectors found hazardous waste violations at the Capistrano test site.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: As a response to many of the previous claims, the company has stood up as an organization for social responsibility. In 2008, Northrop Grumman launched its Environmental Sustainability program and an EHS Leadership Council, to advance its commitment to environmental performance both internally and externally. The Greenhouse Gas Inventory Project was launched to accurately quantify company-wide greenhouse gas emissions and to reduce the carbon footprint of Northrop Grumman operations, in anticipation of upcoming regulations.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In October 2010 the company was named one of Computerworld's Top 12 Green-IT Organizations for its large-scale data center migration effort.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In 2019, Northrop Grumman was named the US's largest corporate contributor to water pollution by the Political Economy Research Institute of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: From 1990 to 2002, Northrop Grumman contributed $8.5 million to federal campaigns. According to PAC summary data compiled by Source Watch, the company gave US$1,011,260 to federal candidates in the 2005–2006 election cycle, compared to $10,612,837 given by all defense contractors in the same cycle. This donation amount was only behind that of General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin in the defense industry. The majority of the contributions, 63%, went to Republicans. Former Northrop Grumman Electronics Systems chief James G. Roche served as Secretary of the Air Force for two years under George W. Bush. Roche would eventually be nominated to head the Army, but withdrew his nomination among accusations of mismanaging a contract with Boeing and of failing to properly handle the Air Force sexual assault scandals of 2003. According to CorpWatch, "at least seven former officials, consultants, or shareholders of Northrop Grumman" have held posts "in the Bush administration...including Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Vice-Presidential Chief of Staff I. Lewis Libby, Pentagon Comptroller Dov S. Zakheim, and Sean O'Keefe, director of NASA." Wolfowitz and Libby have both since left the government amid scandals.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: The company engages third-party lobbying firms in jurisdictions where it has interests. For example, in South Australia it works with lobbying firm CMAX Communications.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Northrop was the target of several high-profile criminal and civil cases.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In 1995, Robert Ferro, an employee for TRW Inc., a company Northrop Grumman acquired in 2002, discovered that satellite components manufactured for the U.S. Air Force (USAF) were faulty and likely to fail in operation. TRW suppressed Ferro's report of the problem and hid the information from the USAF, even after a satellite in space equipped with the faulty components experienced serious anomalies. Ferro later sued Northrop Grumman in federal court under the federal whistle-blower law.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In 1999, the company was sued for knowingly giving the Navy defective aircraft. This suit sought $210 million in damages. Ten years later, on April 2, 2009, Northrop Grumman agreed to pay $325 million to settle the suit. Ferro was awarded $48.8 million of the settlement. Northrop Grumman stated, "it believed that TRW had 'acted properly under its contracts' and that the company had substantive defenses against the claims."


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In 2001, federal investigators probed NG for fraud of more than $100 million, systematic overcharging for radar jammers and other high-tech devices used in the B-1 bomber, the F-15 fighter and the B-2 Stealth bomber.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In 2003, the company was sued for overcharging the U.S. government for space projects in the 1990s. Northrop Grumman paid $111.2 million to settle out of court.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: From August 25 to September 2, 2010, Virginia's computer system operated by NG, under a $2.4 billion contract, experienced an outage which resulted in around 45,000 citizens not being able to renew their drivers licenses prior to their expiration. Computer systems for 26 of the state's 89 agencies were affected and Governor Bob McDonnell announced that some data may have been permanently lost. In 2010 Northrop Grumman apologized for the outage, and agreed to fund an investigation.


title: Northrop Grumman

text: In 2012, controversy began over Northrop Grumman's Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS), when it missed its first deadline. Since then, the system has had a number of controversial developments. In 2016, a Director, Operational Test and Evaluation found a number of major faults with the system, concluding it was "neither mature nor stable".


title: Northrop Grumman

text: U.S. State Department investigators found that Litton Industries, a subsidiary acquired by Northrop Grumman in 2000, had provided portions of source code used by guidance and navigation system interfaces aboard Air Force One to a company in Russia in 1998. Northrop Grumman agreed to pay a $15 million fine for 110 violations, occurring between September 1998 and November 1998, of the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).


title: Northrop Grumman

text: Additionally, documents filed by the State Department state that between 1994 and 2003, Northrop Grumman failed to notify the U.S. State Department about the computer guidance systems also being transferred to Angola, Indonesia, Israel, China, Ukraine and Yemen.


title: Rand Paul

text: Randal Howard Paul (born January 7, 1963) is an American physician and politician serving as the junior U.S. senator from Kentucky since 2011. A member of the Republican Party, he is a son of former three-time presidential candidate and 12-term U.S. representative from Texas, Ron Paul. Paul describes himself as a constitutional conservative and supporter of the Tea Party movement.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul attended Baylor University and is a graduate of the Duke University School of Medicine. Paul was a practicing medical doctor (ophthalmology) in Bowling Green, Kentucky from 1993 until his election to the Senate in 2010. He was re-elected to a second term in 2016, and won a third term in 2022.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul was a candidate for the Republican nomination in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He ended his campaign in February 2016 after finishing in fifth place during the Iowa caucuses. While he initially opposed candidate Donald Trump during the 2016 Republican primaries, he supported Trump following his nomination and became one of his top supporters in the U.S. Senate during and after his presidency.


title: Rand Paul

text: Randal Howard Paul was born on January 7, 1963, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Carol (née Wells) and Ron Paul, who is also a politician and physician. The middle child of five, his siblings are Ronald "Ronnie" Paul Jr., Lori Paul Pyeatt, Robert Paul, and Joy Paul-LeBlanc.


title: Rand Paul

text: Despite his father's libertarian views and strong support for individual rights, the novelist Ayn Rand was not the inspiration for his first name. Growing up, he went by "Randy", but his wife shortened it to "Rand."


title: Rand Paul

text: The Paul family moved to Lake Jackson, Texas in 1968, where he was raised and where his father began a medical practice and for a period of time was the only obstetrician in Brazoria County.


title: Rand Paul

text: When Rand was 13, his father Ron Paul was elected to the United States House of Representatives. That same year, Paul attended the 1976 Republican National Convention, where his father headed Ronald Reagan's Texas delegation. The younger Paul spent several summer vacations interning in his father's congressional office. In his teenage years, Paul studied the Austrian economists that his father respected, as well as the writings of Objectivist philosopher Ayn Rand. Paul went to Brazoswood High School and was on the swimming team and played defensive back on the football team.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul attended Baylor University from fall 1981 to summer 1984 and was enrolled in the honors program. During the time he spent at Baylor, he completed his pre-med requirements in two and a half years, was involved in the swim team and the Young Conservatives of Texas and was a member of a tongue in-cheek secret organization, the NoZe Brotherhood, known for its irreverent humor. He regularly contributed to "The Baylor Lariat" student newspaper. Paul left Baylor without completing his baccalaureate degree, when he was accepted into his father's alma mater, the Duke University School of Medicine, which, at the time, did not require an undergraduate degree for admission to its graduate school. He earned an M.D. degree in 1988 and completed his residency in 1993.


title: Rand Paul

text: After completing his residency in ophthalmology, Paul moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where he has been an "active, licensed physician" since 1993. He worked for Downing McPeak Vision Centers for five years. In 1998, he joined a private medical group practice, the Graves Gilbert Clinic, in Bowling Green, for 10 years. In 2008, Paul formed his own private practice across the street from John Downing, his former employer at Downing McPeak. After his election to the U.S. Senate, he merged his practice with Downing's medical practice.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul has faced two malpractice lawsuits between 1993 and 2010; he was cleared in one case while the other was settled for $50,000. His medical work has been praised by Downing and he has medical privileges at two Bowling Green hospitals. In April 2020, after recovering from COVID-19, Paul began volunteering at a hospital in Bowling Green, assisting them in their response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Kentucky.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul specializes in cataract and glaucoma surgeries, LASIK procedures, and corneal transplants. As a member of the Bowling Green Noon Lions Club, Paul founded the Southern Kentucky Lions Eye Clinic in 2009 to help provide eye surgery and exams for those who cannot afford to pay. Paul won the Melvin Jones Fellow Award for Dedicated Humanitarian Services from the Lions Club International Foundation for his work establishing the Southern Kentucky Lions Eye Clinic.


title: Rand Paul

text: In 1995, Paul was certified to practice by the American Board of Ophthalmology (ABO). Three years earlier, the ABO had changed its certification program, which previously awarded lifetime certifications, and required ophthalmologists to recertify every 10 years, while those who had already been given lifetime certification were not required to recertify. Paul felt this was unfair and campaigned to have all ophthalmologists recertify every ten years.


title: Rand Paul

text: In 1999, he incorporated the National Board of Ophthalmology (NBO) to offer an alternative certification system, at a cost substantially lower than that of the ABO. Board members were Paul, his wife, and his father-in-law. His father-in-law, the board's secretary, stated "I never did go to any meetings... There was really nothing involved. It was more just a title than anything else, for me". By Paul's estimate, about 50 or 60 doctors were certified by the NBO. The NBO was not accepted as an accrediting entity by organizations such as the American Board of Medical Specialties, and its certification was considered invalid by many hospitals and insurance companies. Paul did not file the required paperwork with the Kentucky Secretary of State's office for the NBO's renewal to operate in 2000. He recreated the board in 2005, but it was again dissolved in 2011.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul maintained his own ABO certification from 1995 to 2005. Specialty certification does not affect physician licensure, and Paul's medical license has been valid continuously, with no board actions, since June 1993.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul was head of the local chapter of the Young Conservatives of Texas during his time at Baylor University. In 1984, Paul took a semester off to aid his father's primary challenge to Republican Senate candidate Phil Gramm.


title: Rand Paul

text: While attending Duke University School of Medicine, Paul volunteered for his father's 1988 Libertarian presidential campaign.


title: Rand Paul

text: In response to President Bush's breaking his election promise to not , Paul founded the North Carolina Taxpayers Union in 1991. In 1994, Paul founded the anti-tax organization Kentucky Taxpayers United (KTU), and was chair of the organization from its inception. He has often cited his involvement with KTU as the foundation of his involvement with state politics. The group examined Kentucky legislators' records on taxation and spending and encouraged politicians to publicly pledge to vote uniformly against tax increases.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul managed his father's successful 1996 congressional campaign, in which the elder Paul returned to the House after a twelve-year absence. The elder Paul defeated incumbent Democrat-turned-Republican Greg Laughlin in the Republican primary, despite Laughlin's support from the NRCC and Republican leaders such as Newt Gingrich and George W. Bush.


title: Rand Paul

text: "The Wall Street Journal" reported in 2010 that, although Paul had told a Kentucky television audience as recently as September 2009 that KTU published ratings each year on state legislators' tax positions and that "we've done that for about 15 years", the group had stopped issuing its ratings and report cards after 2002 and had been legally dissolved by the state in 2000 after failing to file registration documents.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul spoke on his father's behalf when his father was campaigning for office, including throughout the elder Paul's run in the 2008 presidential election, during which Rand campaigned door-to-door in New Hampshire and spoke in Boston at a fundraising rally for his father on the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.


title: Rand Paul

text: In February 2014, Paul joined the Tea Party-affiliated conservative advocacy group FreedomWorks in filing a class-action lawsuit charging that the federal government's bulk collection of Americans' phone records metadata is a violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Commenting on the lawsuit at a press conference, Paul said, "I'm not against the NSA, I'm not against spying, I'm not against looking at phone records... I just want you to go to a judge, have an individual's name and [get] a warrant. That's what the Fourth Amendment says." He also said there was no evidence the surveillance of phone metadata had stopped terrorism. Critics, including Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz and Steven Aftergood, the director of the American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy, called the lawsuit a political "stunt". Paul's political campaign organization said that the names of members of the public who went to Paul's websites and signed on as potential class-action participants would be available in the organization's database for future campaign use.


title: Rand Paul

text: On the announcement of the filing of the lawsuit, Mattie Fein, the spokeswoman for and former wife of attorney Bruce Fein, complained that Fein's intellectual contribution to the lawsuit had been stolen and that he had not been properly paid for his work. Paul's representatives denied the charge, and Fein issued a statement saying that Mattie Fein had not been authorized to speak for him on the matter and that he had in fact been paid for his work on the lawsuit.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul is co-author of a book entitled "The Tea Party Goes to Washington" (2011) and also the author of "Government Bullies: How Everyday Americans Are Being Harassed, Abused, and Imprisoned by the Feds" (2012). Paul was included in "Time" magazine's world's 100 most influential people, for 2013 and 2014. He is also a contributor to "Time" magazine.


title: Rand Paul

text: At the beginning of 2009, there was movement by political supporters of his father to draft Paul in a bid to replace beleaguered Republican Kentucky senator Jim Bunning. Paul's potential candidacy was discussed in the "Los Angeles Times" and locally in the Kentucky press. Paul's father said, "Should Senator Bunning decide not to run, I think Rand would make a great U.S. Senator." On April 15, 2009, Paul gave his first political speech as a potential candidate at a Tea Party rally held in his town of Bowling Green, Kentucky, where more than 700 people had gathered in support of the Tea Party movement.


title: Rand Paul

text: On May 1, 2009, Paul said that if Bunning, whose fundraising in 2009 matched his poor numbers in opinion polling for the 2010 election, declined to seek a third term, he would almost certainly run in the Republican Party primary to succeed him, and formed an exploratory committee soon after, while still promising to stay out of the race if Bunning ultimately decided to run for reelection. Paul made this announcement on MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show", though a Kentucky news site first broke the news.


title: Rand Paul

text: On July 28, 2009, Bunning announced that he would not run for reelection in the face of insufficient fundraising. The announcement left only Paul and Secretary of State Trey Grayson as the remaining candidates for the Republican nomination, with Paul announcing on August 5, 2009, that he would officially run for the U.S. Senate as a Republican. The announcement was made through a series of national TV events, radio, and other programs, as well as newspapers in Kentucky.


title: Rand Paul

text: On August 20, 2009, Paul's supporters planned a moneybomb to kick off his campaign. The official campaign took in $433,509 in 24 hours. His website reported that this set a new record in Kentucky's political fundraising history in a 24-hour period. A second "moneybomb" was held on September 23, 2009, to counter a D.C. fundraiser being held for primary opponent Trey Grayson, by 23 Republican United States Senators. The theme was a UFC "fight" between "We the People" and the "D.C. Insiders". Later in the campaign, Paul claimed his pledge to not take money from lobbyists and senators who had voted for the bailout was only a "primary pledge"; he subsequently held a fundraiser in Washington, D.C., with the same senators who had been the target of the September 23, 2009, "moneybomb". Paul ended up raising some $3 million during the primary period. Paul's fundraising was aided by his father's network of supporters.


title: Rand Paul

text: Although Grayson was considered the frontrunner in July 2009, Paul found success characterizing Grayson as a "career politician" and challenging Grayson's conservatism. Paul ran an ad in February that made an issue out of Grayson's September 2008 admission that he voted for Bill Clinton when he was 20 years old. James Dobson, a Christian evangelical figure, endorsed Grayson on April 26 based on the advice of what Dobson described as "senior members of the GOP", but on May 3 the Paul campaign announced that Dobson had changed his endorsement to Paul after Paul and some Paul supporters had lobbied Dobson insisting on Paul's social conservative bona fides.


title: Rand Paul

text: On May 18, Paul won the Republican Senatorial primary by a 23% margin, meaning he would face the Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, in the November 2 general election.


title: Rand Paul

text: In the 2010 general election, Paul faced Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway. The campaign attracted $8.5 million in contributions from outside groups, of which $6 million was spent to help Paul and $2.5 million to help Conway. This money influx was in addition to the money spent by the candidates themselves: $6 million by Paul and $4.7 million by Conway.


title: Rand Paul

text: On June 28, 2010, Paul supporters held their first post-primary online fundraising drive, this time promoted as a "money blast".


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul's campaign got off to a rough start after his comments on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 stirred controversy. Paul stated that he favored 9 out of 10 titles of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but that had he been a senator during the 1960s, he would have raised some questions on the constitutionality of Title II of the Act. Paul said that he abhors racism, and that he would have marched with Martin Luther King Jr. to repeal Jim Crow laws. He later released a statement declaring that he would have voted for the Act and stated "unequivocally ... that I will not support any efforts to repeal the Civil Rights Act of 1964". Later he generated more controversy by characterizing statements made by Obama Administration officials regarding the Deepwater Horizon oil spill cleanup as sounding "un-American".


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul was sworn in on January 5, 2011, along with his father, who was simultaneously in the House of Representatives.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul was assigned to be on the Energy and Natural Resources, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Homeland Security and Government Affairs, and Small Business committees. Paul also formed the Senate Tea Party Caucus with Jim DeMint and Mike Lee as its inaugural members. His first legislative proposal was to cut $500 billion from federal spending in one year. This proposal included cutting the Department of Education by 83 percent and the United States Department of Homeland Security by 43 percent, as well as folding the Department of Energy into the Department of Defense and eliminating the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Seven independent agencies would be eliminated and food stamps would be cut by 30 percent. Under Paul's proposal, defense spending would be reduced by 6.5 percent and international aid would be eliminated. He later proposed a five-year budget plan intended to balance the budget.


title: Rand Paul

text: In February, Paul was one of two Republicans to vote against extending three key provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act (roving wiretaps, searches of business records, and conducting surveillance of "lone wolves" — individuals not linked to terrorist groups).


title: Rand Paul

text: On March 2, Paul was one of nine senators to vote against a stopgap bill that cut $4 billion from the budget and would temporarily prevent a government shutdown, saying that it did not cut enough from the budget. One week later, he voted against the Democratic and Republican budget proposals to keep funding the federal government, saying that both bills did not cut enough spending. Both bills failed to pass the Senate. He later voted against stopgap measures on March 17 and April 8, both of which passed the senate.


title: Rand Paul

text: On April 14, he was one of 19 senators to vote against a budget that cut $38.5 billion from the budget and funded the government for the remainder of the fiscal year.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul voiced opposition to U.S. intervention in the Libyan Civil War and has criticized President Barack Obama for not gaining congressional consent for Operation Odyssey Dawn. During the debt ceiling crisis, the Senator stated that he would only support raising the debt ceiling if a balanced budget amendment was enacted. Paul was a supporter of the Cut, Cap and Balance Act, which was tabled by Democratic opposition. On August 3, Paul voted against a bill that would raise the debt ceiling.


title: Rand Paul

text: On September 7, Paul called for a vote of no confidence in United States Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner. Later that month, Paul blocked legislation that would strengthen safety rules for oil and gas pipelines, because, he stated, the bill was not strong enough. In October, Paul blocked a bill that would provide $36 million in benefits for elderly and disabled refugees, saying that he was concerned that it could be used to aid domestic terrorists. This was in response to two alleged terrorists who came to the United States through a refugee program and were receiving welfare benefits when they were arrested in 2011 in Paul's hometown of Bowling Green. Paul lifted his hold on the bill after Democratic leaders promised to hold a Congressional hearing into how individuals are selected for refugee status and request an investigation on how the two suspects were admitted in the country through a refugee program.


title: Rand Paul

text: In June 2012, Paul endorsed Mitt Romney after it became apparent that he would be the Republican nominee for the 2012 presidential election. However, he was later vocal about his disagreements with Romney on a number of policies.


title: Rand Paul

text: For the 113th Congress, Paul was added to the Foreign Relations committee and retained his spot on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Homeland Security and Government Affairs, and Small Business committees.


title: Rand Paul

text: On March 6–7, 2013, Paul engaged in a filibuster to delay voting on the nomination of John O. Brennan as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Paul questioned the Obama administration's use of drones and the stated legal justification for their potential use within the United States. Paul held the floor for 12 hours and 52 minutes. He ceded to several Republican senators and Democratic senator, Ron Wyden, who generally also questioned drone usage. Paul said his purpose was to challenge drone policy in general and specifically as it related to noncombatants on U.S. soil. He requested a pledge from the Administration that noncombatants would not be targeted on U.S. soil. Attorney General Eric Holder responded that the President is not authorized to deploy extrajudicial punishment without due process, against non-combatant citizens. Press Secretary Jay Carney read Holder's letter, indicating president Obama's support, "The president has not and would not use drone strikes against American citizens on American soil" Press Paul answered that he was "quite happy" with the response. The filibuster was ended with a cloture vote of 81 to 16, and Brennan was confirmed by the Senate with a vote of 63 to 34.


title: Rand Paul

text: In March 2013, Paul, with Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, threatened another filibuster, this one opposing any legislative proposals to expand federal gun control measures. The filibuster was attempted on April 11, 2013, but was dismissed by cloture, in a 68–31 vote. Also in March 2013, Paul endorsed fellow Kentucky Republican Senator Mitch McConnell's 2014 re-election campaign. McConnell had previously hired Paul's 2010 campaign manager, Jesse Benton, as his own campaign manager. Paul's endorsement was seen as a major win for McConnell in avoiding a challenge in the Republican primary.


title: Rand Paul

text: In response to Detroit's declaration of bankruptcy, Paul stated he would not allow the government to attempt to bail out Detroit. In a phone interview with Breitbart News on July 19, 2013, Paul said, "I basically say he is bailing them out over my dead body because we don't have any money in Washington." Paul said he thought a federal bailout would send the wrong message to other cities with financial problems.


title: Rand Paul

text: In September, Paul stated that the United States should avoid military intervention in the ongoing Syrian Civil War. In an op-ed, Paul disputed the Obama administration's claims that the threat of military force caused Syria's government to consider turning over its chemical weapons, instead arguing that the opposition to military action in Syria, and the delay that it caused, led to diplomatic progress.


title: Rand Paul

text: In October 2013, Paul was the subject of some controversy when it was discovered that he had plagiarized from Wikipedia part of a speech in support of Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli. Referencing the movie "Gattaca", Paul quoted almost verbatim from the Wikipedia article about the film without citing the source. Evidence soon surfaced that Paul had copied sentences in a number of his other speeches nearly verbatim from other authors without giving credit to the original sources, including in the speech he had given as the Tea Party rebuttal to the president's 2013 State of the Union Address. In addition, a three-page-long passage of Paul's book "Government Bullies" was taken directly from an article by the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation. When it became apparent that Paul's op-ed in "The Washington Times" on mandatory minimums and related testimony he had given before the Senate Judiciary Committee both contained material that was virtually identical to an article that had been published by another author in "The Week" a few days earlier, "The Washington Times" said that the newspaper would no longer publish the weekly column Paul had been contributing to the paper. After a week of almost daily news reports of new allegations of plagiarism, Paul said that he was being held to an "unfair standard", but would restructure his office in order to prevent mistakes in the future, if that would be what it would take "to make people leave me the hell alone."


title: Rand Paul

text: In response to political turmoil in Ukraine in early 2014, Paul initially said that the United States should remain mindful of the fact that although the Cold War is over, Russia remains a military power with long-range nuclear missiles. He said that the United States should try to maintain a "respectful relationship with Russia" and avoid taking actions that the Russians might view as a provocation, such as seeking to have Ukraine join NATO or otherwise interfering in Russia's relationship with Ukraine.


title: Rand Paul

text: Two weeks later, after the Russian parliament authorized the use of military force in Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered military exercises along Russia's border with Ukraine, Paul began taking a different tone. He wrote: "Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine is a gross violation of that nation's sovereignty and an affront to the international community ... Putin must be punished for violating the Budapest Memorandum, and Russia must learn that the U.S. will isolate it if it insists on acting like a rogue nation." He said that the United States and European allies could retaliate against Russia's military aggression without any need for military action. He urged that the United States impose economic sanctions on Russia and resume an effort to build defensive anti-missile installations in Poland and the Czech Republic. He also called for the United States to take steps as a counterweight to Russia's strategic influence on Europe's oil and gas supply, such as lifting restrictions on new exploration and drilling for fossil fuels in the United States along with immediate approval of the controversial Keystone Pipeline, which he said would allow the United States to ship more oil and gas to Europe if Russia attempts to cut off its own supply to Europe.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul played a leading role in blocking a treaty with Switzerland that would enable the IRS to conduct tax evasion probes, arguing that the treaty would infringe upon Americans' privacy. Paul received the 2014 Distinguished Service Award from the Center for the National Interest (formally called the Nixon Center) for his public policy work.


title: Rand Paul

text: In response to reports that the CIA infiltrated the computers of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Paul called for the firing of CIA Director John O. Brennan. In December 2014, Paul supported the actions taken by the Obama administration to change United States policy towards Cuba and to ease trade restrictions with that country.


title: Rand Paul

text: In the beginning of 2015, Senator Paul re-introduced the Federal Reserve Transparency Act. Paul also introduced the FAIR Act, or Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration Act, which would restrict civil forfeiture proceedings. Paul spoke for ten and a half hours on May 20, 2015, in opposition to the reauthorization of Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Sections of the Patriot Act were prevented from being reauthorized on June 1.


title: Rand Paul

text: After the death of Antonin Scalia in February 2016, on February 15, Paul indicated that he would oppose any nomination by President Obama to replace the late Supreme Court Justice.


title: Rand Paul

text: During a press briefing on May 6, 2016, President Obama called on Paul to stop "blocking the implementation of tax treaties that have been pending for years", arguing that they assisted law enforcement in off shore investigations into tax evasion. Paul advocated for the abolition of gun-free zones during a speech to the National Rifle Association on May 20, citing repeated tragedies occurring in these locations. On June 6, Paul spoke of introducing legislation to cease Selective Service, three days after the death of Muhammad Ali, after whom he intended to name the legislation in tribute.


title: Rand Paul

text: In March 2017, Paul introduced the Stop Arming Terrorists Act that would prohibit the use of United States government funds to provide assistance to Al Qaeda, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and to countries supporting those organizations. On March 16, Senator John McCain (Rep) accused Paul of being an agent of Vladimir Putin after Paul objected to adding Montenegro to NATO. Paul responded the following day by saying McCain "makes a really, really strong case for term limits", suggesting McCain had become "a little unhinged" as a result of his seniority. On April 7, McCain said he did not pay attention to any of Paul's rhetoric and that the latter did not have "any real influence" in the United States Senate.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul questioned President Trump's April 2017 missile strike to Syria by saying, "While we all condemn the atrocities in Syria, the United States was not attacked." He said that further action should not be taken without congressional authorization.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul was one of 22 senators to sign a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to have the United States withdraw from the Paris Agreement in May 2017. According to "The Guardian", Paul has received over $250,000 from oil, gas and coal interests since 2012. In July, Rand Paul joined Reps. Justin Amash (R-MI), Thomas Massie (R-KY), John Duncan Jr. (R-TN) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in opposing a bill that would impose new economic sanctions against Russia, Iran, and North Korea. President Trump opposed the bill, pointing out that relations with Russia were already "at an all-time and dangerous low". He did, however, sign the bill though likely out of political pressure.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul confirmed in an October 2017 interview he would not vote for the Republican budget in the Senate unless billions in spending were removed from the plan: "If leadership is unwilling to compromise with somebody who is concerned about the debt, then they deserve to lose."


title: Rand Paul

text: In February 2018, Republican senators introduced an immigration framework akin to that proposed by President Trump and with his support that called for $25 billion being provided for border security in exchange for a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million immigrants brought into the US illegally. Paul was one of fourteen Republican senators to vote against the proposal.


title: Rand Paul

text: "FiveThirtyEight", which tracks Congressional votes, found that Paul had voted with Donald Trump's positions the least out of all Republicans, only voting with him 74% of the time by August 2018. In December 2018, in the wake of court filings implicating President Trump's involvement in campaign finance violations, including an attempt to buy a woman's silence, Paul played down the alleged violations and said that they should not be "over-criminalized." Paul said that the campaign finance violations were "an error in filing paperwork or not categorizing" and that going after such violations would turn the U.S. into a "banana republic, where every president gets prosecuted and every president gets thrown in jail when they're done with office."


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul introduced a bill on January 25, 2017, that sought to replace the Affordable Care Act which included each person's having a tax credit of $5,000 and not requiring everyone to have coverage, unlike Obamacare.


title: Rand Paul

text: On March 2, after marching to the House of Representatives side of Capitol Hill, Paul was filmed knocking on a door while demanding to see their copy of the replacing and repealing the Affordable Care Act bill. Paul spoke with President Trump over the phone on March 6, Paul telling him that the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act should be two separate bills. Two days later, Paul said Republicans were united in repealing the Affordable Care Act but divided in their stances on its replacement. On March 12, Paul accused House Speaker Paul Ryan of being misleading in portraying supporters of the American Health Care Act of 2017 as not being negotiable, and three days later, March 15, furthered that Ryan was "selling" President Trump "a bill of goods" that he had not explained fully to the president.


title: Rand Paul

text: After the bill was pulled by Republican leaders from a vote, Paul released a statement on March 24 thanking House conservatives for rebelling "against ObamaCare Lite." Later, on April 2, Paul golfed with Trump and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney at the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia, where they discussed a variety of topics, including healthcare.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul told reporters on June 15 that he was willing to vote for a partial repeal, but not the implementation of new Republican entitlement programs, which he identified as present in both House and Senate versions of the bill. Paul also told reporters on September 11 that he did not believe the Graham-Cassidy bill would pass. Paul tweeted on September 15 that Graham-Cassidy retained "90% of Obamacare" and dubbed it "more Obamacare Lite".


title: Rand Paul

text: On September 19, Paul asserted the Graham-Cassidy bill as immortalizing the Affordable Care Act and "a big government boondoggle of a trillion dollars of spending" that Republicans should abandon in favor of pursuing measures that would allow for health insurance to be purchased across state lines. On September 22, after President Trump tweeted that "Rand Paul, or whoever votes against Hcare Bill, will forever (future political campaigns) be known as 'the Republican who saved Obamacare'", Paul responded that he would not be coerced into supporting Graham-Cassidy with bribes or bullying.


title: Rand Paul

text: In January 2019, Paul condemned Senator Mitt Romney for writing an editorial criticizing President Trump. Paul said that Romney's criticism of Trump's character was bad for the country and for the Republican Party.


title: Rand Paul

text: On July 17, 2019, Paul blocked Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's motion for unanimous consent on a bill renewing the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund along with Utah Senator Mike Lee. The fund was estimated to run out by the end of the year; the bill would renew it until the year 2090. Paul argued that he was not blocking the bill, but rather seeking a vote on an amendment that would offset the new spending by other spending cuts due to the deficit. In a segment on Fox News, which went viral, comedian Jon Stewart and 9/11 first responder John Feal rebuked Paul, accusing him of hypocritical "fiscal responsibility virtue signalling", for delaying passage of the bill, while at the same time he voted in favor of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which increased the deficit. In response, Paul said he has always insisted on "pay-go provisions" for any increase in spending, including for disaster relief funding, and called Stewart uninformed and a part of a "left-wing mob".


title: Rand Paul

text: On November 4, 2019, Paul called on the media to reveal the secret identity of Trump's Ukraine "quid pro quo" whistleblower after threatening to reveal the name himself.


title: Rand Paul

text: In February 2020, Paul criticized YouTube for removing a video of his floor speech about the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. His speech contained a controversial question for impeachment manager Adam Schiff and counsel for the president: "Are you aware that House Intelligence Committee staffer Shawn Misko had a close relationship with [...] when at the National Security Council together?"


title: Rand Paul

text: On February 26, 2020, Paul's wife purchased between $1,000 and $15,000 worth of stock in Gilead Sciences, a pharmaceutical company that produces an antiviral drug used to treat COVID-19, before the threat from the coronavirus was fully understood by the public; his disclosure of this transaction came 16 months after the legal deadline set forth in the Stock Act, a law that combats insider trading. Paul's office stated that the disclosure form was filled up on time, but by mistake was not submitted. This purchase was the only stock in an individual company that Paul or his wife bought in the previous 10 years.


title: Rand Paul

text: In September 2020, Paul was the lone Republican to vote against the COVID-19 aid package introduced by Senator Mitch McConnell, joining the Democrats who unanimously voted against it. Paul's grievance with the bill was the accumulation to the debt it would have triggered.


title: Rand Paul

text: After the 2020 presidential election, Paul refused to accept Democratic candidate Joe Biden's victory against Trump and falsely claimed that the election was "stolen."


title: Rand Paul

text: Initially, Paul insisted that the 2020 elections were fraudulent, and in December 2020, claimed that the election "in many ways was stolen." Later, he accepted the state-certified electors that named Biden.


title: Rand Paul

text: In a press release and during the Electoral College session to count the vote, which followed the 2021 United States Capitol attack, Paul argued that the electoral college is an indispensable friend of democracy in checking the danger of centralized power in deciding elections. He additionally condemned the attack while it occurred, calling it "violence and mob rule" and "un-American." He blamed the rioters as setting back election reform discussions and asked them to "just stop it." Later that month, Paul continued to make false claims of fraud in the 2020 election and refused to say that the election was not stolen. In the subsequent second impeachment trial of Trump, which sought to convict him on charges of incitement of insurrection, Paul questioned the constitutionality of it due to Trump having left office by the time it reached the Senate, as well as defending him against the charges, "I want Democrats to raise their hands if they have ever given a speech that says 'take back,' 'fight for your country,' who hasn't used the words fight figuratively?" Once Trump was impeached in January 2021, Paul introduced a motion to the Senate declaring the impeachment to be unconstitutional. Five Republicans joined all 50 Democrats to defeat the motion 55 to 45. With 45 Republican senators supporting him, Paul stated the impeachment was 'dead on arrival'. Paul formally voted against the charges on February 13, 2021.


title: Rand Paul

text: In January 2022, a video resurfaced of Paul advising medical students at the University of Louisville in 2013, during which he said "misinformation works, so try to trick your opponents".


title: Rand Paul

text: In May 2022, Paul blocked a bipartisan bill that would provide $40 billion in aid for Ukraine during the Russian invasion, citing the need to create a special inspector general to oversee how the aid is spent.


title: Rand Paul

text: On February 3, 2021, Paul was named a ranking member of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul was considered a potential candidate for the Republican nomination for the Presidency of the United States since at least January 2013. He delivered the Tea Party response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address on February 13, 2013, while Marco Rubio gave the official Republican response. This prompted some pundits to call that date the start of the 2016 Republican primaries. That year, he spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington D.C., where he won the 2016 Presidential straw poll. Paul went on to win the straw poll for the next two years as well, leading to some considering Paul to be a front runner for the nomination, although CPAC attendees are typically considered younger and more libertarian-minded than average Republican voters.


title: Rand Paul

text: In a speech at the GOP Freedom Summit in April 2014, Paul insisted that the GOP has to broaden its appeal in order to grow as a party. To do so, he said it cannot be the party of "fat cats, rich people and Wall Street" and that the conservative movement has never been about rich people or privilege, "we are the middle class", he said. Paul also said that conservatives must present a message of justice and concern for the unemployed and be against government surveillance to attract new people to the movement, including the young, Hispanics, and black voters.


title: Rand Paul

text: During the 2014 election, Paul launched a social media campaign titled "Hillary's Losers" which was meant to highlight many of the Democratic candidates that lost their bids for the U.S. Senate despite endorsements from Hillary Clinton. Clinton was also a candidate for President and eventually won the Democratic Party's nomination, going on to lose to Donald Trump in the general election.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul began to assemble his campaign team, setting up campaign offices and hiring his campaign manager in the beginning of 2015, fueling speculation that he was preparing to enter the Presidential race. Paul officially announced his presidential candidacy on April 7, 2015. Within a day of his announcement, Paul raised $1 million.


title: Rand Paul

text: In April 2011, Paul filed to run for re-election to his Senate seat in 2016. Had he become the Republican presidential (or vice-presidential) nominee, state law would prohibit him from simultaneously running for re-election. In March 2014, the Republican-controlled Kentucky Senate passed a bill that would allow Paul to run for both offices, but the Democratic-controlled Kentucky House of Representatives declined to take it up.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul spent his own campaign money in the 2014 legislative elections, helping Republican candidates for the State House in the hopes of flipping the chamber, thus allowing the legislature to pass the bill (Democratic Governor Steve Beshear's veto can be overridden with a simple majority). However, the Democrats retained their 54–46 majority in the State House. Paul has since given his support to the idea that the Kentucky Republican Party could decide to hold a caucus rather than a primary, potentially giving Paul more time to decide whether he should run for U.S. Senator or continue a potential bid for president.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul announced the suspension of his presidential campaign on February 3, 2016, shortly after the Iowa caucus, where he finished in fifth place.


title: Rand Paul

text: A supporter of the Tea Party movement, Paul has described himself as a "constitutional conservative". He is generally described as a libertarian, a term he both embraced and rejected during his first Senate campaign. He supports term limits, a balanced budget amendment, and the Read the Bills Act, in addition to the widespread reduction of federal spending and taxation. He favors a flat tax rate of 14.5% for individuals and business, while eliminating the FICA payroll taxes, as well as taxes on inheritance, gifts, capital gains, dividends, and interest. Paul has frequently appeared on "Infowars" with radio show host and right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Ideologically, the American Conservative Union has given Paul a lifetime conservative rating of 96% and the "Conservative Review" gave him a 92% score. Since the 2016 Republican primary, when Paul was highly critical of Trump, he has "become one of the president's closest allies despite occasionally voting against Trump's nominees and legislative proposals." As of June 2020, according to FiveThirtyEight, Paul had voted with President Trump's position on congressional issues 70% of the time, the second lowest among all Republican senators.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul describes himself as "100% pro life", believing that legal personhood begins at fertilization. In 2009, his position was to ban abortion under all circumstances. Since 2010, he has said he would allow for a doctor's discretion in life-threatening cases such as ectopic pregnancies. In 2011, Paul signed onto the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act which was intended to prohibit federal funding for abortion, with the exception of abortions in the case of rape, incest, and to save the life of the mother.


title: Rand Paul

text: On September 5, 2017, the Trump administration announced the intended rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. In tweets responding to the act, Paul stated the executive order that created DACA was illegal and congressional bipartisanship was needed to solve or fix the program.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul was one of 11 Republicans in 2019 to vote against Trump's demand for "emergency border funding".


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul has said that same-sex marriage "offends [himself] and a lot of people" on a personal level, and said there is a "crisis that allows people to think there would be some other sorts of marriage." Prior to the Supreme Court's 2015 decision in "Obergefell v. Hodges" legalizing same-sex marriage across the United States, Paul held the view that the decision to ban same-sex marriage should be in the hands of states. Following the Court's decision, Paul said in 2015, "While I disagree with Supreme Court's redefinition of marriage, I believe that all Americans have the right to contract. The Constitution is silent on the question of marriage because marriage has always been a local issue. Our founding fathers went to the local courthouse to be married, not to Washington, D.C. I've often said I don't want my guns or my marriage registered in Washington."


title: Rand Paul

text: During Rachel Levine's confirmation hearing with the Senate HELP Committee to be Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Biden, Paul compared transgender medicine to "genital mutilation" and accused her of supporting "surgical destruction of a minor's genitalia." Paul was rebuked by committee chairman Patty Murray, as well as multiple House and Senate Democrats, who were to vote on the Equality Act that same day.


title: Rand Paul

text: Unlike his more stridently "non-interventionist" father, Paul concedes a role for American armed forces abroad, including permanent foreign military bases. He has said that he blames supporters of the Iraq War and not President Obama for the growth in violence that occurred in 2014, and that the Iraq War "emboldened" Iran. Dick Cheney, John McCain and Rick Perry responded by calling Paul an isolationist, but Paul has pointed to opinion polls of likely GOP primary voters as support for his position. In 2011, shortly after being elected, Paul proposed a budget which specified $542 billion in defense spending. In 2015, he called for a defense budget of $697 billion.


title: Rand Paul

text: Referring to ISIS, Paul stated: "I personally believe that this group would not be in Iraq and would not be as powerful had we not been supplying their allies in the war [against Syrian Bashar al-Assad's government]." Paul then supported airstrikes against ISIS, but questioned the constitutionality of Obama's unilateral actions without a clear congressional mandate. Paul has stated concerns about arms sent to Syrian rebels that wind up in unfriendly hands. In December 2018 he supported President Trump's decision to pull the US army out from the Syrian Civil war.


title: Rand Paul

text: In 2016, Paul was one of the first members of Congress to come out in opposition to United States support for the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen. In June 2017, Paul tried to block Trump administration's plan to sell more weapons to Saudi Arabia. In April 2018, he again criticized the U.S.-Saudi Arabia alliance, highlighting that "Saudi Arabia has funded radical madrassas, teaching hatred of America throughout the world, and that Saudi Arabia also supplied arms to ISIS in the Syrian civil war." Paul said that U.S.-backed Saudi blockade of Yemen has further aggravated the humanitarian crisis in the country.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul, like his father, has also been a critic of neoconservatism, and urged Trump to not choose prominent neoconservative Elliott Abrams to serve as Deputy Secretary of State. In April 2018, Paul voted for the confirmation of Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State. Paul had previously insisted that he would not confirm Pompeo, citing Pompeo's hawkish foreign policy beliefs.


title: Rand Paul

text: In June 2019, Paul criticized the Trump administration for escalating tensions with Iran. Said Paul: "One of the things I like about President Trump is that he said the Iraq War was a mistake. I think an Iran war would be even a bigger mistake than the Iraq War." In January 2020 he criticized the U.S. airstrike on Baghdad International Airport which killed high-level Iranian General Qasem Soleimani. Paul stated that the attack will increase tensions between the two countries.


title: Rand Paul

text: On June 12, 2017, U.S. senators reached an agreement on legislation imposing new sanctions on Russia and Iran. The bill was opposed only by Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders. In July 2018, shortly after 12 Russian intelligence officers have been charged with hacking and leaking emails of senior Democrats, he described the Special Counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election as a "witch hunt on the president". That same month, Paul blocked a Senate resolution that backed the intelligence community's assessment of Russian election interference and that called on President Trump to speak with special counsel Robert Mueller. In August 2018 Paul traveled to Moscow and met with several Russian senators, including Sergey Kislyak. In May 2019, Paul opposed the decision of the Senate Intelligence committee, chaired by Republican Senator Richard Burr, to subpoena Donald Trump Jr., a close friend of Paul's, to testify in front of Congress about his involvement with Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign. In July 2018, Paul was among only two senators to vote against a Senate motion supporting NATO.


title: Rand Paul

text: On July 1, 2020, the Senate rejected Paul's amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act which would have required the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Afghanistan within a year and brought an end to the 19-year war.


title: Rand Paul

text: On May 12, 2022, Paul stopped a vote on a $40 billion spending bill for aid to Ukraine during the 2022 Russian invasion, objecting that it would be the second spending bill for this purpose, and is 3 times larger than the first. Paul has also stated that President Biden provoked Russia by advocating for Ukraine's entrance into NATO. In July, the Security Service of Ukraine placed Paul on a list of public figures whom it alleges promote Russian propaganda.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul has focused on criminal justice reform as a legislative priority. He introduced the Justice Safety Valve Act in 2013 to provide judges with greater sentencing flexibility, the Civil Rights Voting Restoration Act in 2014 to restore voting rights for non-violent felons, the REDEEM Act in 2014 to allow sealing and expungement for non-violent crimes, the FAIR Act in 2014 to rein in police use of civil asset forfeiture, the RESET Act in 2014 to address the crack sentencing disparity and how drugs are weighed, the Police CAMERA Act in 2015 to increase the use of body cameras by police, the Stop Militarizing Our Law Enforcement Act in 2015 to reduce the use of military equipment by police, the MERCY Act in 2015 to restrict the use of solitary confinement on juveniles, the Pretrial Integrity and Safety Act in 2017 to encourage states to reform bail policies, the Pregnant Women in Custody Act in 2018 to protect the health and safety of pregnant women in prison, and the Justice for Breonna Taylor Act in 2020 to end the use of no-knock warrants. Paul says policies such as the war on drugs and mandatory minimum sentencing have particularly harmed minorities.


title: Rand Paul

text: In 2020, Paul held up bipartisan legislation that would make lynching a federal crime. Paul said that he thought lynching should be "universally condemned", but wanted an amendment to clarify that the causation of non-fatal injuries would not be considered lynching.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul was one of six Republican senators to vote no on expanding the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, which would allow the U.S. Justice Department to review hate crimes related to COVID-19 and establish an online database.


title: Rand Paul

text: On May 28, 2021, Paul voted against creating an independent commission to investigate the 2021 United States Capitol attack.


title: Rand Paul

text: On cannabis legalization, Paul says the issue should be left up to the states and that "you ought to be able to pretty much do what you want to do as long as you don't hurt somebody else". Regarding medical use, Paul has endorsed efforts to legalize in Kentucky and introduced the CARERS Act in 2015 to legalize medical cannabis at the federal level. Paul has also supported states' rights-focused cannabis legislation, introducing the Rohrabacher–Farr amendment in 2014, cosponsoring the STATES Act in 2018, and introducing other amendments. Paul introduced the Marijuana Businesses Access to Banking Act in 2015 to allow cannabis businesses increased access to banks.


title: Rand Paul

text: Regarding industrial hemp cultivation, Paul has supported efforts to legalize in Kentucky and at the federal level as well, introducing the Industrial Hemp Farming Act in 2013. In 2020 he introduced the Hemp Economic Mobilization Plan (HEMP) Act to increase the THC limit of hemp from 0.3% to 1%.


title: Rand Paul

text: As a critic of warrantless surveillance of Americans, Paul says "the Fourth Amendment is equally as important as the Second Amendment" and has called for conservatives to more strongly defend Fourth Amendment rights. In 2015 Paul spoke for ten and a half hours on the Senate floor against renewing provisions of the PATRIOT Act that he said were unconstitutional. Paul has called Edward Snowden a "whistleblower" and called for Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to resign for "lying" about the phone metadata program that Snowden exposed. He also filed a class action lawsuit against the Obama administration seeking to end the program. Paul gave a speech at the University of California, Berkeley in 2014 titled "The N.S.A. vs. Your Privacy".


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul has not definitively accepted the scientific consensus on climate change, which has found that global warming is real, progressing, and primarily caused by humans. Paul has said pollution emissions are subject to "onerous regulation." In 2018, Paul called for an investigation of a National Science Foundation grant that went towards educating meteorologists about the science of climate change. Paul said the grant was "not science" but "propagandizing". In a January 2020 tweet, Paul said "Despite climate alarmist predictions, humans will likely survive for hundreds of millions of years into the future. In the meantime, we should begin creating atmospheres on suitable moons or planets."


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul has spread false claims about the safety and efficacy of vaccines. In 2009, Paul was interviewed by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and suggested mandatory vaccination would be akin to martial law. On February 2, 2015, he told conservative radio host Laura Ingraham regarding vaccinations, that "most of them ought be voluntary". His remarks generated controversy by suggesting that states should not require parents to vaccinate their children, because parents should have the freedom to make that decision for their children. Later that day, in an interview with CNBC, Paul clarified this statement, commenting "I'm not arguing vaccines are a bad idea. I think they are a good thing, but I think the parent should have some input. The state doesn't own your children. Parents own the children, and it is an issue of freedom." Afterward, he added about vaccines, "I've heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking, normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines." On February 3, he posted a photograph to Twitter of himself being vaccinated.


title: Rand Paul

text: In 2014, Paul argued that the Obama administration and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) were downplaying the threat posed by Ebola virus in the United States. Ultimately, nine people infected with Ebola returned to the United States, two nurses contracted the disease within the US, and two of the returning travelers died.


title: Rand Paul

text: In May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Paul said that stay-at-home orders amounted to "dictatorship" by Kentucky's Democratic governor Andy Beshear.


title: Rand Paul

text: At a Senate committee hearing on September 23, 2020, Paul clashed with Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Paul asked Fauci if he had "second thoughts" about the CDC's mitigation recommendations, including mask-wearing and maintaining a six feet space of social distancing. Paul said New York's high fatality rate showed that mitigation efforts were insufficient. Fauci replied, "You've misconstrued that Senator, and you've done that repetitively in the past", saying that New York had succeeded in getting the virus under control by adhering to the CDC's clinical guidelines.


title: Rand Paul

text: In May 2021, during President Biden's push to convince more Americans to be vaccinated, Paul said he personally was choosing not to get the COVID vaccine, justifying his decision by saying that "I've already had the disease and I have natural immunity" and that "in a free country... each individual would get to make the medical decision." He later challenged Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on the Biden administration's vaccine mandates by arguing that they are not needed for people who have been previously infected.


title: Rand Paul

text: At Senate hearings in May and July 2021, Paul debated Anthony Fauci on the origin of COVID-19, gaining media attention for his concerns about the risks of lab work. In July 2021, Fauci responded to Paul's allegations and called him a liar. In August 2021, Paul was suspended from YouTube for a week under the company's misinformation policy after he published a video which falsely claims that masks are not effective. Paul also released a video of himself calling on people to "resist" public health measures to halt the spread of COVID-19.


title: Rand Paul

text: On August 11, 2021, Rand Paul disclosed that his wife Kelley Paul had purchased a stake in Gilead Sciences, which manufactures an antiviral drug used to treat COVID-19, on February 26, 2020.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul supports repealing the Affordable Care Act and opposes universal healthcare, having once equated it to slavery.


title: Rand Paul

text: In November 2019, Paul signed a pledge to support a constitutional amendment to limit senators to two terms.


title: Rand Paul

text: Paul is married to Kelley Paul (née Ashby), a freelance writer. They were married on October 20, 1990, and have three sons, William (born 1992), Duncan, and Robert. William and Duncan attended the University of Kentucky, while Robert attended a private school in the Washington, D.C. area. They reside in Bowling Green, Kentucky. They were previously active members of the Presbyterian church, although more recently have attended a United Methodist church.


title: Rand Paul

text: On November 3, 2017, Paul was assaulted by a neighbor, Rene Boucher (then aged 59), a retired anesthesiologist. Paul, who is deaf in one ear, was wearing noise-canceling headphones while mowing his lawn, reportedly enabling Boucher to tackle Paul without his own approach being noticed.


title: Rand Paul

text: Boucher was arrested and charged with one count of fourth-degree assault and released on a $7,500 bond. Paul sustained five broken ribs, of which three were displaced fractures. In August 2019, part of Paul's lung required removal as a result of the injuries he suffered during the attack.