Rand: ‘Big Gov’t Republicans’ Should Think About Beefing Up Borders, Not NSA

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Kentucky Senator and GOP presidential candidate Rand Paul criticized “Bush, Rubio, Christie, all these big government Republicans” who “ought to think a little bit more about how we actually defend our borders” on Monday’s “Laura Ingraham Show.”

Rand said, “Well, you know, Bush, Rubio, Christie, all these big government Republicans, they ought to think a little bit more about how we actually defend our borders. You know, they’re for open borders for people coming in, yet they want to spy on all the American citizens by collecting all our records.”

He added that there is “no evidence” that bulk metadata collection “stopped, or uniquely added to any information to stop any attacks. We had it in place during the Boston bombing. We had it in place during the Paris tragedy. And really, it’s been in place for any kind of period of time before San Bernardino.” Rand continued that he opposes trading liberty for “a false sense of security.”

Rand further argued, “they’re marketing fear, and they’re spreading fear in order to get people to give up their liberties. When in reality, I’ve tried to convince Rubio to support a more secure border, and he won’t support it.” He then pointed to an amendment he introduced to put a pause on immigration from the Middle East.

Rand also stated that the NSA program collects data indiscriminately, and that he would like to collect more data on terrorists, but less on law-abiding Americans.

He further said that he doesn’t believe people lose their expectation of privacy if their data is held by phone companies or stored in a cloud.

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

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