Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has blocked an anti-lynching bill passed by the House, saying that it must be changed since the current language could “conflate lesser crimes with lynching.”
Paul told reporters on Wednesday that he is in conversation with the authors of the bill “about how to make the bill better,” but his objection will delay the bill’s passing for several days.
“If they want to pass it the easy way, they have to talk to me about it,” he said, according to Politico.
“Under the statute as written, bruises could be considered lynching. That’s a problem, to put someone in jail for 10 years for some kind of altercation. And it also I think demeans how horrible lynching actually was,” the senator said.
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., told Politico that “The House could easily take the bill that we’ve already passed and [Trump will] sign it. That’s where we should have been, could have been and still can be.”
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.