GOP debate: Christie, Paul spar on NSA, hug
Paul and Christie spar over the NSA’s use of phone records to catch terrorists:
PAUL: I want to collect more records from terrorists, but less records from innocent Americans. The Fourth Amendment was what we fought the Revolution over. I will continue to stand for the Bill of Rights.
CHRISTIE: That’s a completely ridiculous answer. How are you supposed to know [the difference]?
PAUL: Get a warrant!
CHRISTIE: Senator, when you’re sitting in a subcommittee just blowing hot air about this, you can say things like that. When you’re responsible for protecting the lives of American people, then what you need to do is make sure..
PAUL: Here’s the problem, governor. You fundamentally misunderstand the Bill of Rights…I don’t trust President Obama with our [phone] records. I know you gave him a big hug, and if you want to give him a big hug again, go right ahead.
CHRISTIE: And you know — you know, Senator Paul? Senator Paul, you know, the hugs that I remember are the hugs that I gave to the families who lost their people on September 11th. Those are the hugs I remember, and those had nothing to do — and those had nothing to do with politics, unlike what you’re doing by cutting speeches on the floor of the Senate, then putting them on the Internet within half an hour to raise money for your campaign…
Patriot Act filibuster
Paul speaks for more than 10 hours on the Senate floor to filibuster a Patriot Act provision used to legally justify the bulk collection of telephone data. Congress must reauthorize or change the law by June 1, and its Memorial Day recess starting at week’s end.
I will not let the Patriot Act, the most unpatriotic of acts, go unchallenged. At the very least, we should debate. We should debate whether or not we are going to relinquish our rights, or whether or not we are going to have a full and able debate over whether or not we can live within the Constitution, or whether or not we have to go around the Constitution.
I think we’ve made the [collection] haystack so big, no one’s ever getting through the haystack to find the needle. What we really need to do is isolate the haystack into a group of suspicious people and spend enormous resources looking at suspicious people, people who we have probable cause.
You don’t know who the next group is that’s unpopular. The Bill of Rights isn’t for the prom queen. The Bill of Rights isn’t for the high school quarterback. The Bill of Rights is for the least among us. The bill of rights is for minorities. The bill of rights is for those who have minority opinions
Criticizes Bush’s Iraq remarks
Paul criticizes Jeb Bush for his remarks on Iraq in an interview to Politico.
[Iraq] is an important question and [Bush gave] an incredibly fumbled answer…I don’t think it’s hypothetical whether or not it’s a good idea to topple secular dictators in the Middle East and hope to get a good outcome and hope that stability comes thereafter…I think every day we look at the mess of the chaos of the civil war in Iraq, I think every day people become more and more convinced that the war was a mistake. I think we have to learn from the mistakes of our past.
Lauds federal appeals court’s NSA ruling
Paul lauds the federal appeals court’s ruling on NSA for illegal spying.
This is a big deal. We’ve been waiting for this for over a year now. I sued the NSA last year because I think that the whole program really is not consistent with the Fourth Amendment and what we find out today is that the appeals court thinks it’s not even consistent with the statute, the Patriot Act, which also goes on to mention that many people in congress had no idea this program was going on, and most of us don’t think that this program is consistent with what the Patriot Act actually said.
‘Baltimore violence is about lack of morals’
Paul reacts to the riots in Baltimore during an interview with radio host, Ingraham.
The police have to do what they have to do, and I am very sympathetic to the plight of the police in this…There are so many things [root causes] we can talk about. The breakdown of the family structure, the lack of fathers, the lack of a moral code in our society.
https://soundcloud.com/user61228343/ingraham-rand-paul-april-28
Favors Iran negotiations over war
Paul says he is skeptical about Iran deal, but would favor negotiating with them over war.
I’m going to keep an open mind and look at the agreement — I do believe that negotiation is better than war. I’ve been a big proponent of negotiation…I think we should do everything we can to stop them. I’ve voted for sanctions to try to stop them. I’m somewhat skeptical of the president’s agreement; however, I am in favor [of] negotiations over war, and I think I’ve been one of the reasonable people in our party who has not been beating the drums for war.
Welcomes Paul to 2016 Race
Cruz welcomes fellow Republican Paul to 2016 presidential race.
I am glad to welcome my friend Rand Paul into the 2016 GOP primary. Rand is a good friend, and we have worked side by side on many issues. I respect his talent, his passion, and the work he has done for Kentuckians and Americans in the U.S. Senate. His entry into the race will no doubt raise the bar of competition, help make us all stronger, and ultimately ensure that the GOP nominee is equipped to beat Hillary Clinton and to take back the White House for Republicans in 2016.
No regrets on Iran letter
Paul says that he has no regrets on sending open letter to Iran regarding the negations on nuclear deal in an interview with Beck on his radio show.
I don’t want just any old agreement, I want the agreement to mean something. Most of the sanctions [against Iran] were passed by Congress. The president can’t undo legislation on his own. This is this constant war we have with him that he thinks he can write or un-write law.
Calls the war against ISIS ‘illegal’
Paul calls the war against ISIS ‘illegal’ in an op-ed piece published by the Daily Beast.
This war is now illegal. It must be declared and made valid, or it must be ended.
CNN interview
Paul discusses his views on same sex marriage in an interview with Peter Hamby of CNN during an appearance at the College of Charleston.
I don’t want my guns registered in Washington or my marriage. Founding Fathers all got married by going down to the local courthouse. It is a local issue and always has been. Society’s changing, I mean, people change their minds all the time on this issue, and even within the Republican Party, there are people whose child turns out to be gay and they’re like, oh well maybe I want to rethink this issue. So it’s been rethought. The President’s rethought the issue. So I mean, a lot of people have rethought the issue. The bottom line is, I’m old fashioned, I’m a traditionalist. I believe in old-fashioned traditional marriage. But, I don’t really think the government needs to be too involved with this, and I think that the Republican Party can have people on both sides of the issue.
‘Interventionism created ISIS’
Paul criticizes Clinton’s foreign policy in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, saying that interventionism led to the rise of ISIS:
To interventionists like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, we would caution that arming the Islamic rebels in Syria created a haven for the Islamic State. We are lucky Mrs. Clinton didn’t get her way and the Obama administration did not bring about regime change in Syria. That new regime might well be ISIS.
He adds:
[…] Those who say we should have done more to arm the Syrian rebel groups have it backward. This is not to say the U.S. should ally with Assad. But we should recognize how regime change in Syria could have helped and emboldened the Islamic State, and recognize that those now calling for war against ISIS are still calling for arms to factions allied with ISIS in the Syrian civil war.
GOP must ‘evolve and adapt’
Paul says that GOP must evolve and adapt to ensure that the party has a bright future. He also says that he would make a decision on running for president within 2 years.
Whether or not I am going to run for president, that decision will come probably in two years, and [we] will in the meantime try to be part of the national debate…We think the Republican Party needs to evolve and adapt, or we are going to become a permanent minority party.