Rand Paul: “let us be very clear about why we are here this evening. We are here this evening because this is an important debate.…”

“let us be very clear about why we are here this evening. We are here this evening because this is an important debate. This is a debate over the Bill of Rights. This is a debate over the Fourth Amendment. This is a debate over your right to be left alone. Justice Brandeis said that the right to be left alone is the most cherished of rights. The right to be left alone is the most prized to civilized men. Let us be clear. We are here tonight because the President continues to conduct an illegal program. The President has been rebuked by the court. In explicit terms, the President has been told that the program he is conducting is illegal. Now, the President opines on television. The President wants to blame--he says: Anybody but me. But you know what. The President started this program without congressional permission. Even the authors of the PATRIOT Act say that the PATRIOT Act in no way gives authority to the President to collect all of your phone records all of the time. If there ever was a general warrant, if there ever was a generalized collection of information from people about whom there is no suspicion, this is it. We are not collecting the information of spies. We are not collecting the information of terrorists. We are collecting all American citizens' records all of the time. This is what we fought the Revolution over. Are we going to so blithely give up our freedom? Are we going to so blithely go along and just say: Take it.…”