Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell suffered an embarrassing defeat Sunday evening, as he failed to prevent three surveillance authorities he says are necessary for national security from expiring.

McConnell, R-Ky., resisted a bill that would have modified the most controversial of the provisions – Section 215 of the Patriot Act – until the eleventh hour. Seventy-seven senators eventually agreed to advance it.

The bill could have passed before midnight, but Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who believes its reforms are insufficient, refused to go along with his peers and kicked final consideration of the bill to midweek.

Paul's intransigence isn't earning him much love among fellow Republicans, particularly establishment members of the party, in the early stages of his 2016 presidential campaign.



"I don't stand with Rand," moderate Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., told The Daily Beast. "He would be the worst candidate that we could put forward," said the GOP's 2008 nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, according to Roll Call.

So then, who does still stand with Rand in his 2016 presidential bid?

Mitch McConnell does, according to his top staffer.

"No change on that score," McConnell chief of staff Brian McGuire tells U.S. News in an email.

McConnell, who introduced unsuccessful legislation to renew Section 215 without modification, previously stood by his man in a TV interview with George Stephanopoulos last month, before Paul forced the provisions to expire.



"He's your candidate for president," Stephanopoulos prompted McConnell. "Make the 30-second case for why he should be president."

McConnell did just that, touting Paul's outreach to African-Americans and young voters, and his effort to bring "a kind of new brand of Republicanism to the contest."

In an April story, the six-term senator told Politico: "I am happy to give my support to Sen. Paul as he officially begins his candidacy, and I wish him success. I have been happy to have his support during his time in the Senate and am proud to work alongside him for Kentucky and our shared conservative values."

Politico reported, however, that McConnell may duck into his shell when primary season gets underway.



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Though Paul often rails against policies favored by the Republican establishment, he endorsed McConnell's 2014 re-election bid over a conservative challenger and a key Paul family insider, Jesse Benton, worked as McConnell's campaign manager. Benton explained in a leaked conversation he was plugging his nose and working for McConnell to aid Paul's presidential bid.

Paul apparently is happy to have the support of McConnell.