After filibustering the nomination of John Brennan to head the CIA for nearly 13 hours Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said he was just beginning his fight to restrain the executive branch, demand more transparency, and ensure the U.S. government does not use drones to kill U.S. citizens on American soil in violation of the Constitution.
Paul, in a Friday op-ed in the Washington Post, wrote that while the Senate eventually confirmed John Brennan as director of the CIA, “this debate isn’t over.”
“The Senate has the power to restrain the executive branch — and my filibuster was the beginning of the fight to restore a healthy balance of powers,” Paul wrote.
He said President Barack Obama “still needs to definitively say that the United States will not kill American noncombatants,” because the “Constitution’s Fifth Amendment applies to all Americans; there are no exceptions.”
Paul said he wanted to “sound an alarm bell from coast to coast” with his filibuster to let everybody “know that our Constitution is precious and that no American should be killed by a drone without first being charged with a crime.”
“As Americans, we have fought long and hard for the Bill of Rights,” Paul said. “The idea that no person shall be held without due process, and that no person shall be held for a capital offense without being indicted, is a founding American principle and a basic right.”
Paul said he was energized by the tweets Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) read him on the floor of the Senate during his filibuster and the “outpouring of support” for his filibuster shows “Americans are looking for someone to really stand up and fight for them.”
“And I’m prepared to do just that,” Paul wrote.
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