Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), a 2016 GOP presidential candidate who just single-handedly took down the National Security Agency (NSA) bulk data collection program by blocking reauthorization of the Patriot Act, is out with a new campaign ad on Monday evening detailing what he did and how.
The ad, provided exclusively to Breitbart News ahead of its public release, starts with a narrator speaking over a statue of an American revolutionary soldier.
“Sometimes you have to take a stand, hold the line and not back down,” the narrator says.
It continues by shifting to footage of what appears to be a room where government agents are monitoring people. “When government illegally collected our phone records, and violated our privacy, Rand Paul took a stand defended our rights and stopped them,” the narrator continues as it cuts to video of Paul speaking on the Senate floor—as captured by Fox News. “Rand Paul stood up to Obama, who expanded the illegal surveillance program and violated our Constitutional rights. Take a stand and Stand With Rand. Donate today to defeat the Washington Machine.”
WATCH THE AD:
The new campaign ad, Paul’s team told Breitbart News, will air on select cable television networks for at least several days starting tomorrow. His campaign wouldn’t say how big the buy is at this point, however.
The ad comes after Paul’s moves to shut down efforts by those within his own party, including his Kentucky colleague Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, to reauthorize the Patriot Act—section 215 of which allowed the NSA to engage in bulk data collection of Americans’ communications.
Earlier on Monday, Paul declared victory in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, saying, “we’re excited by the fact that the battle has been won.”
“The president has been told in no uncertain terms—and by the end of the week this will be in writing—that he can no longer illegally collect all of Americans’ phone records and keep them in Utah,” Paul said. “I think this is a big rebuke for the president. The courts told him it was illegal and he just kept doing it anyway. I think most Americans, particularly Republicans, don’t trust this president. This is the same president who went after Tea Party groups and went after religious liberty and religious groups. I don’t understand why some of the big government Republicans up here don’t get it because most Republicans I meet across the country don’t want this president to have access to all their phone records.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.