Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul challenged fellow 2016 hopeful Jeb Bush’s support of the Patriot Act on “The Laura Ingraham Show” Monday, saying Bush simply “doesn’t get it.”
Ingraham played audio of Jeb Bush on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” in which he defended the Patriot Act. “There’s no evidence, not a shred of evidence that the metadata program has violated anybody’s civil liberties…” Bush said. “And the Patriot Act ought to be reauthorized as is.”
“Your reaction to that?” Ingraham asked.
“Well I think he doesn’t get it,” Paul responded. “Our civil liberties are violated by collecting all of our records.” (VIDEO: Rand Paul: ‘I May Have Exaggerated’ That Rivals Want Terror Attack)
Paul compared metadata collection to the British soldiers who used general warrants to seize American colonists’ papers. “Would it have been okay if they took their papers and just stacked them down at the government offices and said, ‘Oh, we’re not going to look at them’? It’s the act of taking your papers which is unconstitutional and a violation of privacy and civil liberties.”
“Your papers used to be in your castle; a man or woman’s home was their castle, it was privileged,” he continued. “But now our records are in a cloud. Do we have any right to them? Do we have any right to privacy?”
“I want to see the Supreme Court ultimately get to this. And I’m afraid once this new so-called reform passes, there will be no Supreme Court case.” (VIDEO: Megyn Kelly And Rand Paul Get In Heated Debate Over Patriot Act)