Politics

‘Threw Away The 4th Amendment’: Thomas Massie Literally Breathless After Republicans Side With Dems On FISA Extension

House Lawmakers Work On Continuing Resolution To Fund The Government

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Nicole Silverio Media Reporter
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Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie arrived on Glenn Beck’s program literally breathless after a vote on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Thursday.

The House voted to reauthorize Section 702 of the FISA Act with no reforms Thursday, which the Kentucky congressman said is “used illegally to invade Americans’ privacy hundreds of thousands of times.” Section 702 has allowed intelligence officials to surveil Americans without obtaining a warrant. (RELATED: FBI Agents Misused FISA Data To Surveil ‘Political Party,’ US Congressman, Audit Finds)

Massie said 73 Republicans and 45 Democrats voted against the reforms, while 147 Republicans “voted the wrong way” and that they “threw away the Fourth Amendment.”

“Well, Glenn, they put you in a SCIF here. One of these secret room without your phone and they try to convince you the world’s gonna end if you don’t allow them to reauthorize this. But that’s a false choice,” Massie said. “We passed a reform to this that would would require the government to get a warrant out of [Ohio Rep] Jim Jordan’s Judiciary Committee, another commission [Texas Rep] Chip Roy and I sit on, and the speaker, instead of bring it to the floor as a standalone bill, brought this horrible thing as you said in your intro, we already know they’ve admitted they’ve used it illegally 250,000 times on Americans.”

“They brought this same program back to the floor saying it’s a four month reauthorization but it’s likely, I read the bill, it’s like a year reauthorization because people will just reset the clock in January,” he continued.

“I want to explain the reason 147 Republicans voted the wrong way. They were given a false choice. They were saying if you don’t fund this program, then we won’t be able to spy on terrorists,” he said.

The Kentucky congressman provided some optimism by saying the House Judiciary Committee’s bill could still be brought to a floor vote to counter the FISA Act. This said bill includes reforms to require law enforcement to obtain a warrant and hand down criminal penalties to anyone who abuses the program.