Rand Paul has been a lot of things: A self-certified ophthalmologist, an extremely bad neighbor, a Covid disinformation super-spreader, a scalawag and a ragamuffin.

But the words that best describe him are "utter asshole."

He was the asshole who blocked an anti-lynching bill. He was the asshole who blocked the 9/11 First Responders Compensation Fund. Same asshole who voted against the Covid relief package.

So it's no surprise he would continue that streak on ABC's "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos.

Stephanopoulos began by asking what should have been an easy starter question:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Paul, let me begin with a threshold question for you. This election was not stolen, do you accept that fact?

Unfortunately for Stephanopoulos, and the audience itself, it never moved past this question.

Paul, despite NOT being one of the seditious senators who voted not to certify the election results, seems to have decided to keep the "stop the steal" bullshit going. Stephanopoulos set the record straight several times during the segment.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I have to stop you there. No election is perfect. But there were 86 challenges filed by President Trump and his allies in court, all were dismissed. [...] The Department of Justice led by William Barr said there's no widespread evidence of fraud.

Paul tried to argue that we have to go along with chasing this stupid lie because people don't have confidence in elections, after Republicans spent months telling them the election was rigged/stolen, which Stephanopoulos pointed out was an ouroboros of idiocy. Paul, getting ever more frustrated and flustered, tried his own "alternative facts."

PAUL: -- George, where you make a mistake is that people coming from the liberal side like you, you immediately say everything's a lie instead of saying there are two sides to everything.

Because there aren't two sides to everything, as Stephanopoulos explained:

PAUL: Historically what would happen is if said that I thought that there was fraud, you would interview someone else who said there wasn't. But now you insert yourself in the middle and say that the absolute fact is that everything that I'm saying is a lie. [...]

STEPHANOPOULOS : Sir, there are not -- there are not two sides to this story. This has been looked in every single state.

PAUL : Sure there are. There are two sides to every story. George, you're forgetting who you are. You're forgetting who you are as a journalist if you think there's only one side. You're inserting yourself into the story to say I'm a liar because I want to look at election fraud and I want to look at secretaries of state who illegally changed the voter laws without the permission of their state legislatures. That is incontrovertible, it happened. And you can't just sweep it under the rug and say, oh, nothing to see here, and everybody is a liar and you're a fool if you bring this up. You're inserting yourself into the story. A journalist would hear both sides and there are two sides of a story.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I'm standing -- I'm standing by facts. There are not two sides to facts. I did not say this was a perfect election. I say the results were certified. I said it was not stolen.

That's why Paul was upset with Stephanopoulos: He refused to play the "both sides" game that has been a staple of political Sunday shows for decades. It could be a rare instance of journalism or one of the very few lessons the news media may have learned from four years of Trump, but journalists pointing out there are not "two sides" to truth is something that should be happening more often.

After Stephanopoulos gave Rand Paul one more chance to answer the simple yes/no question of whether this election was stolen (it wasn't) and Paul once again refused, the interview ended.

Meanwhile over on "Fox News Sunday,," there was Marco Rubio, who had these arguments for why Trump should never, ever be punished for inciting a literal attack on the US Capitol:

Behold the mental gymnastics it must take Rubio and the GOP to admit Trump is seditious douche who incited an insurrection, yet not want to hold him accountable whatsoever. Indeed, Republicans' only idea of bipartisanship or unity is to let them have their way.

This why ultimately, the Republican Party is lost and should be treated with the same relevancy as the Whig Party.

And that's enough time for us to be spending on Marco Rubio.

Have a week!

Wonkette is fully funded by readers like you! If you love Wonkette, FUND WONKETTE.

How often would you like to donate?

Just once Monthly

Select an amount (USD)

$2$25$5$50$10$100$15$500$20$1000

Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons.