Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) blasted the Bush administration and former Vice President Dick Cheney on CNN’s "The Situation Room" Tuesday evening, blaming them for not taking corrective action for pre-9/11 intelligence failures and for creating a security protocol inconsistent with the Constitution after the attacks.
When asked to respond to Cheney's comments that the Kentucky senator was wrong to criticize the National Security Agency surveillance programs, Paul hurled criticism at Cheney.
"Really, someone should have been removed from office for that, and they should have said this is never going to happen again," Rand said on the "really, really bad intelligence" and "really bad police work," that failed to thwart the attacks.
"Instead they said, ‘oh, we need to look at the records of all the innocent Americans’ phone calls every day.' And I think you need to have a respect for the Bill of Rights, a respect for privacy and particularly a respect for the fourth amendment," he said.
Paul said he believed it was possible to catch terrorists and protect Americans' freedoms simultaneously.
Paul's sentiments were in stark contrast to those of Cheney, who said on "Fox News Sunday" that the nation was at war following the 9/11 attacks and the situation justified a response that increased intelligence capabilities.
"Congress, in fact, authorized the president to use military force to deal with that crisis," Cheney said. "And that put you over into the category of being able to use all of your military assets, your intelligence assets, and so forth, in order to protect the country against another attack."
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