Charles Rangel: “I did not mean to infer that he wanted to bend the Constitution so badly that we would suffer from it now and in the…”

“I did not mean to infer that he wanted to bend the Constitution so badly that we would suffer from it now and in the future. But in the period of time that we are living today, where terrorism is actually a threat to our everyday life, I cannot imagine that we would apply to a court in order to find out how we can keep some of these bums out of our country or to keep them from destroying our property and our lives. I take this war on drugs pretty seriously. We have lost lives not only to drug addiction but to our prison system. There is no question in my mind that most Americans believe if we wanted to stop this that we can but that big dollars prevent us from doing it. We go all over the world telling other countries that they really are not going after their drug traffickers, they will not extradite, they will not put them in jail, they will not do anything. Now is the time for us to do something. Now is the time to bring the best minds that we have in the United States, those who have the constitutional mandate to protect the American citizens. Obviously, the President has overlooked this legislation, the Judiciary has overlooked the legislation, and they feel that we stand on sound constitutional ground.”