“Outside the beltway people still do care about the Bill of Rights
Friday on Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said the reason he is fighting against the mass data collection of phone records of American citizens is because it is not being used to combat terrorism like promised.
“Ninety-nine percent of the time one of the sections is not being used for terrorists but is being used for domestic crime,” Paul said. “Outside the beltway people still do care about the Bill of Rights. One of the things that happens that does affect people’s civil liberty under the Patriot act, is 99% of the time one of the sections is not being used for terrorists but is being used for domestic crime. They promised when they passed this, we need to lower the standard, we’ll get rid of the Constitution, we can’t have constitutional exceptions for terrorists. Some of that I can accept, but the warning was this will be used on American citizens for other possible crimes. Section 213 of the Patriot Act, over 99% of the time is being used for domestic crimes. We gave up on the Constitution without even really understanding what we are doing.”
He added, “I’m for getting terrorists. I’m for look at the records of terrorists. I just want to use the Constitution. I don’t want to give up on what we believe in or what we stand for. In a period of fear sort of lose what we are fighting for. The young men and women I know who have risked their lives overseas have done so to protect the Bill of Rights. We give up on the Bill of Rights in this period of fear. I think we have given up on the soldiers who have fought so hard for our country.”
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