On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “The Story,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) stated that conservatives should support the Electoral College and not want it overturned by Congress and “that this heightened tension that everything’s been stolen, just has led to this feeling that nobody believes there’s any integrity anymore, and so, they’re just going to riot.”

Paul said, “You know, it wasn’t a good day for our country. People here are rattled. It brought back bad memories of being shot at at the ballpark a few years ago when we had the Congressional baseball practice.”

He added, “But with the question at hand, conservatives should know that the Electoral College is something we support. Because it supports states’ rights to run the elections. And when there’s a problem, it’s going to have to be fixed at the states. The fix isn’t up here. For people to be led to believe that the Electoral College can be changed after the vote, and that people can come in Washington and have Congress overturn the election is an absurdity. It’s really a mistake for people to believe that. It’s never happened before. It was never intended to happen. … But can you imagine what would happen to this country if every four years we have Congress overturning an election? It would be chaos. And that’s what you saw today, chaos and anarchy.”

Paul later said that there’s “a certain degree of disingenuousness from those who are objecting. They’re saying, oh, we don’t want to overturn the election. We just want to protest. … They’re characterizing the vote as a protest. But it’s not a protest. The vote is not to seat these electors. The result is Donald Trump would win the presidency. That’s what they’re asking us to do.”

He concluded, “I think that this heightened tension that everything’s been stolen, just has led to this feeling that nobody believes there’s any integrity anymore, and so, they’re just going to riot.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett