Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul pushed back on Fox Business host Larry Kudlow during his show on Thursday, saying that the whistleblower was “faithful to the Constitution.”
Director of National Intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday for her confirmation hearing, where some senators focused on her previous remarks about Snowden. On “Kudlow,” the Fox Business host told Paul that he “never understood” why Gabbard wanted to pardon Snowden, prompting the senator’s initial pushback.
Paul said that Snowden “may be the greatest whistleblower in all of our history,” highlighting how the whistleblower revealed an “invasion and violation” of Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights.
“We never would have known this without Edward Snowden. Now, does that mean I justify all of the leak and all the information? No. We have to have secrets, and there have to be rules,” Paul said. “But, at the same time, I think there’s a great deal of civil disobedience in there. Whether or not there’d be some kind of punishment, he could suffer here at home. I think he’d actually probably suffer if he were allowed to come home.”
“But some people said they want[ed] to kill him. Some people said they want to put him in jail forever. Some people say he’s a traitor to his country,” Paul added. “But I think he actually was faithful to the Constitution in exposing that his own government was lying about spying on Americans.”
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In 2013, Snowden disclosed to the public that the U.S. government had been conducting mass surveillance on Americans. He released a slew of documents he had gathered while working as a National Security Agency contractor.
Despite Paul’s support, Kudlow pushed back, saying he believed the whistleblower was “anti-American.”
“You know, Senator, you almost had me until that last little line there that he was faithful to his government. No, he wasn’t. I think he was very anti-American. I mean, he’s a citizen in Russia today, in Moscow. Look, I agree with you — ” Kudlow said.
Paul interrupted.
“They will put him in jail or kill him if he comes home. He can’t go anywhere. He’s trapped,” Paul said.
“But he was faithful to the Constitution and to the Fourth Amendment. He revealed that the U.S. government was spying on millions and millions of Americans without a warrant. That’s a big deal.”
Kudlow agreed that Snowden’s exposure was a “big deal,” but he also said that the lawmaker would “never convince” him that Snowden was “some angelic figure saving America,” to which Paul teased he was going to “keep working” on him.
In a November 2020 social media post, Gabbard tweeted that President Donald Trump should consider pardoning both Julian Assange and Edward Snowden as he neared the end of his first term. Gabbard was not the only vocal supporter of the whistleblower; Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie had previously urged both Trump and former President Joe Biden to consider Snowden for a pardon.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/Fox Business/”Kudlow”)
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