William Paul, the 33-year-old son of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), launched into an antisemitic and homophobic tirade against Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) at a Capitol Hill bar Tuesday night, telling the congressman that "the Jews" and "the gays" were to blame for Middle East conflicts, then posted a public apology the next day and said he would seek treatment for alcoholism.
Lawler, the Hudson Valley Republican, told the New York Post in a phone conversation that he was sitting at a popular Washington bar with a friend and a reporter for NOTUS when William Paul sat down beside them and inserted himself into their conversation.
The episode is more than a bad night at a bar. It puts a spotlight on the conduct of the senator's own family at a moment when Rand Paul chairs the Homeland Security Committee and has positioned himself as a moral arbiter of fitness for office, including opposing the nomination of Sen. Markwayne Mullin to lead the Department of Homeland Security.
Lawler's account, delivered in his own blunt language, described William Paul as "drunk and belligerent" from the start. The congressman said Paul interjected on a discussion about Rep. Thomas Massie's Kentucky primary and immediately turned it into a grievance about Jewish influence.
Lawler recounted the exchange to the Post:
"So Rand Paul's f---ing son is sitting next to us at the bar... And he just like chimes in on our conversation, f---ing drunk and belligerent, and then starts going off about, you know, if [Rep. Thomas] Massie [R-Ky.] loses [his primary], it's because of my people."
When Lawler asked what "my people" meant, the answer was plain.
"I'm like, 'What people?' He goes, 'Jews,' and I'm like, 'Do you think I'm Jewish?... I'm Irish-Italian Catholic, buddy.'"
William Paul appeared surprised that Lawler was not Jewish. But the conversation did not improve from there. Lawler said Paul then moved into a broader rant about the Middle East, accusing the United States of "trying to steal Iran's land for the Jews" and seizing the West Bank. He also reportedly accused GOP megadonor Paul Singer, an American citizen, of doing "Israel's bidding."
The most incendiary remark Lawler attributed to William Paul was this: "This war, it's all about the gays and the Jews, and I hate them both, and I don't care if they die."
The Washington Examiner reported that Lawler said William Paul also gave him the middle finger and tripped during the encounter. Lawler described him as "clearly inebriated." The evening ended, by Lawler's account, when William Paul knocked over a stool and stumbled out of the Capitol Hill watering hole.
This was not a he-said, he-said dispute with no corroboration. A NOTUS reporter, identified by Breitbart as Reese Gorman, was seated with Lawler at the time and said he personally witnessed the confrontation. Gorman reported that William Paul identified himself as Sen. Rand Paul's son and made antisemitic remarks, including referring to "you Jews" and calling Jews "anti-American."
NOTUS first revealed the incident publicly. The presence of a journalist as a direct witness makes the usual "taken out of context" defense considerably harder to mount.
Lawler framed the incident as part of a broader pattern of hostility toward Jewish Americans in political life. He told the Washington Examiner: "This is the level of hatred and vitriol, frankly, that some of my Jewish colleagues experience, but many of my constituents also experience."
William Paul posted a statement on his X account Wednesday afternoon. It was brief and followed the familiar template of public figures caught in ugly moments, blame the alcohol, promise to get help, insist the behavior was out of character.
"Last night, I had too much to drink and said some things that don't represent who I really am. I'm sorry and today I am seeking help for my drinking problem."
The apology may be sincere. But the record suggests this is not an isolated lapse. William Paul pleaded guilty in 2015 to driving under the influence after smashing his Honda truck into a parked car. Two years before that, he was arrested for allegedly assaulting a 22-year-old female flight attendant on a plane headed for Charlotte, North Carolina. Authorities charged him with consuming beer or wine underage and disorderly conduct after he landed.
Senate dynamics have been volatile this year, with unexpected breaks from party orthodoxy becoming almost routine, as seen when Sen. John Fetterman crossed party lines on key votes. But the William Paul incident is not a policy disagreement. It is a personal conduct problem that has now spilled into the public record for the third time.
The younger Paul is not just a senator's son who wandered into a bar. He has been building his own career in Republican politics on Capitol Hill. He served in the office of West Virginia GOP Rep. Alex Mooney from August 2024 to January 2025. After that, he worked as a digital director for Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) from January to June 2025.
He has also worked at the conservative group FreedomWorks Inc. and at Americans for Tax Reform, organizations that sit at the center of the right-of-center policy world.
That résumé makes the tirade harder to dismiss as the ravings of someone disconnected from the political world. William Paul knows the players. He knows the stakes. And he chose to sit down next to a sitting congressman and a reporter and say what he said.
The Washington Free Beacon noted that the confrontation carried extra political sensitivity because Sen. Rand Paul has been actively campaigning for Massie, the very candidate whose primary prospects William Paul blamed on Jewish influence.
Representatives for Sen. Rand Paul's office did not respond to requests for comment. That silence is notable given the senator's own record of moralizing about the fitness of others for public responsibility.
In March, Rand Paul opposed the nomination of Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) to lead the Department of Homeland Security. His stated reason was Mullin's past endorsement of "dueling" to resolve political differences. Paul said at the time: "I just wonder if someone who applauds violence against their political opponents is the right person to lead an agency that has struggled to accept limits to the proper use of force."
Mullin was ultimately confirmed to lead DHS in a 54-45 vote that required two Democrats to cross the aisle, a process that highlighted the fractures within the Republican conference that Paul himself helped widen.
The senator's willingness to lecture colleagues about rhetorical standards sits uneasily next to his silence about his own son's hateful outburst. Paul set a standard for public conduct when he opposed Mullin. His son failed it spectacularly.
Those internal GOP tensions have played out across multiple fronts this session, from the cloture fight over Mullin's nomination to unexpected crossover votes on Iran policy. The William Paul incident adds a personal dimension to what has already been a fractious period for Senate Republicans.
Several questions remain open. The name of the bar has not been publicly identified. It is unclear whether any other patrons or witnesses besides Lawler, his friend, and the NOTUS reporter have provided accounts. Sen. Rand Paul has not personally addressed the incident.
It also remains to be seen whether William Paul's former employers, Collins, Mooney, or the organizations where he worked, will comment on his conduct or his departure from their staffs.
And the most basic question of all: whether the apology and the promise to seek treatment represent a genuine turning point, or simply the latest chapter in a pattern that stretches back more than a decade. A DUI, an alleged assault on a flight attendant, and now a public antisemitic tirade, at some point, the explanation stops being "a bad night" and starts being a record.
The Republican Party has spent considerable energy, rightly, calling out antisemitism on the left, on college campuses, and in the streets. That effort loses credibility the moment it becomes selective. When hateful language comes from inside the house, the standard has to hold. Especially when the house belongs to a sitting senator who demands accountability from everyone else.
Accountability is not a weapon you aim only outward. If it means anything, it starts at home.
