The Public Record
Rand Paul is an American politician and physician currently serving as the junior United States senator from Kentucky, a position he has held since January 2011. A member of the Republican Party, he is known for his strong libertarian views, advocating for limited government and individual liberties. Throughout his tenure, Paul has focused on issues such as healthcare reform, fiscal responsibility, and civil liberties, often challenging both Republican and Democratic leadership on various policies.
I know the word ``hypocritical'' is a strong word. I don't use it lightly. But the words we are using in this resolution that we will get a chance to vote on are the words from the President. The President said: The President does not have…
I would just encourage that we continue to expand this, that it is long overdue.
That is a real problem. I mean, we got lucky because of the informant, but I guess that is the real problem.
I can kind of understand that after we lost the war in Vietnam, the communists took over and people who sided with us or fought with us would be executed.
Currently, the invasive patdown searches are random and not based on risk assessment?
But it is not a totalitarian regime. We have a democracy over there. We are supposed to be proud of that government.
I think the most serious threats to our country from terrorism probably come from travel visas, refugee visas, and student visas.
If you fly from Islamabad into Kennedy Airport and then you are going to fly on to Chicago, do you go back through any screening or are you just relying on what happened in Islamabad?
I think it is sort of an insult to our soldiers who are over there to say that it is unsafe.
We are made to feel like criminals and we do not want to be made to feel like criminals when we fly on a plane.
I believe we continue to have security breaches, and I think there are two possibilities.
The 59,000 refugees that Senator Collins brought up, you say you are going to screen them.
Perhaps it is that our philosophy is that everyone is potentially a terrorist and everyone has an equal chance of being a terrorist.
After we showed him the outrage--and he has to be reading the newspaper--over patting down these children, he said TSA was changing its procedure.
It is insulting our privacy. Our parents do not like it. Our kids do not like it. It needs to change.
And with regard to setting up a frequent traveler program, you say there are a couple of airports we are doing it in now?
Our approach should not be: Because there was an 8-year-old with a bomb in Afghanistan, all 8-year-olds in America are a threat to our country.
If they overstay their welcome, if they overstay their student visa, are we systematically going through--like Senator Lieberman talked about with the exit program, do we have an exit program on all student visas?
I think we need to try to continue to do what we can to isolate and target who could attack us.
I was just thinking more of people who have been to Yemen three times and Somalia twice and they are not on your watch list, but you might want to spend a little more time with them.
Politicians like Rand Paul
