Senator Rand Paul may be even better at medicine than he is at politics. And that’s really saying something. The multi-talented ophthalmologist got a chance to show off his talents when a senate colleague found herself in the throes of a potentially dangerous health emergency.
During Thursday’s Senate luncheon on Capitol Hill, things got dicey when Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) reportedly choked on food offered during the chamber’s “Iowa Day.”
The medically trained Rand Paul (R-KY) successfully performed a Heimlich maneuver on Ernst, according to credible reports.
Burgess Everett, chief of Politico’s congressional bureau, broke the story soon after it happened.
Ernst, who is said to be doing OK after her colleague’s heroic deed, went on X to joke about it and express her gratitude to Senator Paul.
Even though they work together, Paul and Ernst have strong opinions that they haven’t always been able to put aside. Their most recent disagreement concerned the allocation of assistance to Ukraine. Another Republican who has been vocal in his criticism of Paul’s limited-government philosophy, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, responded in a humorous way as well. As the Hill reported:
Ernst and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) hosted the Thursday luncheon, which is provided weekly by a member and frequently features their home state’s delicacies. Grassley posted about the meal shortly beforehand, which was headlined by pork chops from the Hawkeye State.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has battled frequently with Paul over the years on foreign policy issues, quipped to The Washington Post afterwards “God bless Rand Paul.”
“I never thought I’d say that,” he added.
Paul, who is the son of the renowned Ron Paul, has become known as a libertarian gadfly in Washington, DC, gaining reputation for fearlessly challenging career bureaucrats like Dr. Anthony Fauci.
In a recent heated session on government censorship, he confronted Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, while also putting FBI Director Chris Wray on the defensive.
Sen. Paul began the meeting by asking Secretary Mayorkas directly: “Do you consider a discussion on vaccine efficacy a threat to the homeland?”
He followed up, “Have you engaged with social media companies regarding content moderation?… Did these discussions touch on topics like vaccine efficacy, mask effectiveness, or Hunter Biden’s laptop?”
Rand Paul’s willingness to save a fellow senator’s life is an apt metaphor for his attempt to save a republic that is choking on unchecked statism.
Despite the government’s purported concern for “misinformation” on social media, the Democrats and their Big Tech allies have constantly promoted it on social media.
One embarrassing episode on Thursday put that on full display. Rep. Dan Goldman continued to push the ridiculous argument that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian “disinformation.”
Furthermore, investigative journalist Michael Shellenberger at the House Weaponization Committee on Thursday recapped how U.S. government officials and Facebook unconstitutionally conspired to censor “even true” information about Covid-19.
It’s no wonder the Democrats want to censor their critics, given how often they are either flat-out wrong or blatantly lying about their destructive un-American policies.