Political Quotes

“I know the Senator from Kentucky agrees with me that the defense of our country and the protection of our civil liberties should be bipartisan and above politics. I know he agrees that we can and must protect our citizens without violating their civil liberties. Again, I don't always agree with my good friend from Kentucky on every issue, but when it comes to this Nation's intelligence gathering and security, we agree more than we don't. As was he, I was deeply troubled by the revelation that our country was engaged in bulk collection--I think we all were surprised--and that millions of private citizens' data was gathered unknowingly and unjustifiably. In 2013, Edward Snowden revealed to the American public that NSA was engaging in ``bulk data collection,'' in sweeping up virtually every cell phone record of an enormous number of Americans, again for no reason. The U.S. spying program did this by systematically and indiscriminately collecting millions--I mean millions--of Americans' phone records by simply digging up every phone record that came into its net even if it wasn't remotely related to a broad, general search. These are not searches that were relevant to a particular threat or an individual group; it was just a huge database of documenting what millions of law-abiding citizens were doing. That is not what this country was based on, and I think the Senator from Kentucky has made that very clear. I know the Senator from Kentucky believes this was wrong, as I do.…”