Rand Paul: “I think it is important to know and let the record show that I have been working with Senator Booker's office for 3…”

“I think it is important to know and let the record show that I have been working with Senator Booker's office for 3 months on the amendment of this bill; that I am willing to have unanimous passage of the bill today, but I think it is incredibly important that we get this right. A Black woman in New Jersey assaulted three Jewish women and slapped them. It was terrible. She uttered racial epithets about these Jewish women. She was charged with third-degree misdemeanor assault with up to 1 year in prison, which to me sounds pretty significant for slapping, but she was then charged with a hate crime in addition to that, which was 4 years in addition. If slapping someone and hurling racial epithets gets you 10 years in prison, this is exactly what we have been fighting about in criminal justice reform. We set up a system and didn't pay attention to the penalties, and all of a sudden things we didn't intend happened. So we have to be smart about this. I am willing to pass the bill today, as amended, which would simply say not that you even have to harm someone--you have to attempt to harm them, but it has to be an attempt to harm them. So all the discussion about bruising while trying to lynch someone-- yes, that is attempted murder. It would be covered by this bill. Nothing in the bill would stop or prevent the prosecution of heinous behavior. That is what it is intended for What I am trying to do is to make sure we don't get unintended consequences.…”