Rand Paul Hits Back At Kudlow On Snowden, Says Whistleblower Was ‘Faithful To The Constitution’

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 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.”