KENTUCKY — Republican lawmaker Rand Paul was first elected by voters from Kentucky in 2010 to serve in the United States Senate.

Since he’s been in Washington, Paul has been very outspoken advocating for constitutional liberties, fiscal responsibility and has remained a fierce advocate against government overreach.

During this In Focus Kentucky segment, Sen. Paul discusses a wide range of topics, including his recent "no" vote against Supreme Court of the United States appointee Ketanji Brown Jackson.

"We've already voted on Miss Brown Jackson the first time she was appointed to the appellate court and I voted against her nomination that time, because I didn't think her judicial philosophy represents an original understanding of the Constitution," Paul explained. "In written questioning, she was unable or refused to even answer whether or not there is such a thing as individual rights. That's alarming on the face of it."

The Russian invasion into Ukraine has stretched into its second month, taking the lives of tens of thousands troops and civilians alike. Paul said he's horrified by the scenes coming out of the region.

"I think we have a great deal of sympathy. You know, we're a country that fought for its independence against a larger nation. And I think that the sympathy of the American people is with the party that's been invaded with Ukraine. I do think that Putin has miscalculated. From the very beginning. I think he thought it was going to be a cakewalk. He thought it was going to be like Crimea. He'd waltz in and take it and get very little resistance. But he's met with fierce resistance, which I think will only get worse. We're only getting more serious and more significant as the atrocities are depicted to the Ukrainian people. You know, some people said, Well, what will happen, you know, what will America do if he uses chemical weapons? I think that misses the understanding that it's not always about what America will do. It's what the Ukrainians will do. I think they're horrified at civilian deaths. And if there were use of chemical weapons, they're even going to be more horrified. And I think that means the resistance is more fierce. A lot of people don't know that Ukrainians have virtually as many or more soldiers involved and some of them are, you know, brand new soldiers, you know, every 18 to 60 or 60 year old man is expected to fight. So there are hundreds of 1000s of people. And they have actually gotten a pretty significant amount of these anti tank weapons, these Javelin missiles as well as Stinger missiles. And I think they continue to get more and more arms over time. So I think really, the real story is here. Is that you know, Putin was surprised, shocked, miscalculated and fought to a standstill. And now I think he's going to attempt to, you know, keep some of his ill gotten gains in the east part of the country. But even that's not a certainty," said Sen. Paul.

Recently Congress cleared a months-long partisan impasse over how to respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sending two bills aimed at punishing Russia and aiding Ukraine to President Joe Biden for his signature. Senator Paul originally blocked one of pieces of legislation that would limit trade with Russia, until language linked to human rights-related sanctions were added into the bill.

"There are sanctions done against people who are corrupt like oligarchs, people who have been involved with human rights abuses and the original language of the bill said there had to be gross human rights abuses, and it listed some examples. Extra judicial killing, kidnapping, genocide, things that all of us, no matter which party you add in would be, it would agree are human rights abuses when the bill came forward. We did have a little bit of back and forth on the floor. But, because I was willing to stand up explain to the public and those who were debating with me, the possible unintended consequences of this. In the end, we prevailed and it looks like the bill will pass with the language re-inserted that describes what a human rights abuse is," explains Paul.

You can watch the full In Focus segment in the player above.