Politics

Rand Paul Is Still Talking: Twelve Hours of Filibuster

Filibustering the nomination of John Brennan to head the CIA until he gets answers about the limits to the president's power to kill

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There's a website you can check to see if Rand Paul is still talking if for some reason you can't find the C-SPAN livestream.

The filibuster is now 12 hours long and has included "questions" from 11 other senators: Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, Jerry Moran, Ron Wyden, Marco Rubio, Pat Toomey, Saxby Chambliss, John Cornyn, John Barrasso, John Thune, and Mitch McConnell. All are Republicans except Wyden, who appeared early on in the effort. Harry Reid checked in earlier to see if the Brennan vote might happen tonight and Dick Durbin objected to a request for unanimous consent to a resolution calling the use of drones to target Americans on American soil a violation of the Constitutional right to due process. 

#StandWithRand is still trending on Twitter in the U.S. and worldwide, and you should follow @reason247, where we're livetweeting the event.

The record for a filibuster in the Senate is just over 24 hours, when Strom Thurmond filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

Though it's not over yet, it's already being documented on YouTube. Here are some highlights, including an Emergency Alert System test:

As Rand Paul's mentioned multiple times, he'd stop as soon as the President or the Attorney General tell him whether they believe the president has the power to kill Americans on U.S. soil.