Paul Promises 'Immediate' End to Government Phone Surveillance, in Announcing Run
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., promised to end government surveillance of U.S. citizens’ phone records if he is elected president. He made the remark in his Tuesday speech announcing a run for the White House in 2016. “Warrantless searches of Americans’…
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phones and computer records are un-American and a threat to our civil liberties,” Paul said in his speech in Louisville. “I say that your phone records are yours. I say the phone records of law-abiding citizens are none of their [government's] damn business. ... The president created this vast dragnet by executive order. And as president, on day one I will immediately end this unconstitutional surveillance.” Paul has previously criticized FCC net neutrality rules. “Despite wrongheaded attempts by governments to micromanage markets through disastrous industrial policy, technology has progressed because it has been driven by a free and open Internet,” Paul said as part of a petition on Protect Internet Freedom’s website ahead of the FCC net neutrality vote in February. “The FCC’s plan for regulating the web threatens to interrupt that positive innovation.” Other likely GOP contenders for the White House -- Jeb Bush, a former Florida governor, and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida -- slammed the net neutrality in connection with the same petition.