Rand Paul: Lindsey Graham "doesn't rise beyond middle school kind of rhetoric"
During a recent interview with Reason magazine Editor in Chief Matt Welch, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) defended himself againt recent charges by fellow Republican Sen. Linsdey Graham (R-SC).
Go here for the full interview.
Subscribe to Reason TV's YouTube channel for automatic updates.
Runs 1:20
Produced by Todd Krainin. Cameras by Meredith Bragg and Josh Swain.
This is a rush transcript. All quotes should be checked against the audio for accuracy.
Reason: Lindsey Graham said, as part of his critique of your performance, that you're more scared of the NSA than you are of ISIS. Is that true?
Rand Paul: You know, I think there are people who…you have to consider the source. This is a person who said that he would use censorship if he needed to. This is the same person who said, "Well, when people ask for an attorney, you should tell them to shut up." This is the same person who's also said, "If they ask for a judge just drone 'em." I mean, some of the stuff I think doesn't rise beyond middle school kind of rhetoric. So it's hard to know when to respond to people like that.
But I think ultimately if you want to talk among adults about, "Is ISIS a threat to our country?" Yes. "Is NSA a threat sometimes to our liberty?" Yes. I personally don't think you have to trade one for the other. I don't think you have to trade your liberty for security. I think you can have both. I think the Constitution can be a powerful tool. The Constitution never said we wouldn't go after records of criminals or terrorists. The Constitution just says you have to individualize the suspicion; put a person's name on it. I tell people, "I want to collect more records of terrorists, just less records of innocent Americans."
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
Of course, middle school rhetoric will go over the heads of most voters.
I think elementary school rhetoric might be too much for some of our illustrious progtard and rethuglican friends.
You joke about this, sure, but I’m not so sanguine.
The more I see the more I begin to think that the only two main groups who have any grasp of history or logic in the body politic are:
1) The openly and avowed fascist/authoritarians, who make no pretence to respect human rights and want a lawful-evil style but functional society at any cost, and
2) Classical Liberals and their ideological descendents, who hold human rights paramount and insist that all society must develop only from that initial position, regardless of outcome.
These two groups barely poll at all in America. 95% of voters are TEAM voters, largely progtards, socons, neocons, and all flavor of idiotic and inconsistent ideological mish-mash.
I hate fascists/authoritarians but I can respect them on a mental level because they have their axioms and stick to them, developing a consistent framework for society.
What I absolutely cannot respect are the 95%.
It’s the argument between Hobbes and Locke still going after all these years.
I agree about no respect for the 95%. That is why our founding fathers were against a pure democarcy. At present I believe our whole political system is an illusion. At Fox everyday they talk about who will get into thier 10 person debate with Jeb Bush leading. Only one ptoblem. He isn’t running yet. Seems the neocons and banks have already told the 95% who thet get to vote for.
I make up to $90 an hour working from my home. My story is that I quit working at Walmart to work online and with a little effort I easily bring in around $40h to $86h? Someone was good to me by sharing this link with me, so now i am hoping i could help someone else out there by sharing this link… Try it, you won’t regret it!……
http://www.worktoday7.com
“I tell people, “I want to collect more records of terrorists, just less records of innocent Americans.”
Zing!
He’d be even more presidential if he said “fewer”.
Sad but true. I am a grammar nazi.
Still totes voting for Rand!
The dude quotes Hayek in senate debate and rocks Raybans better than David Caruso, hells yeah!
*note to self: become citizen*
And still some say women don’t like Rand.
It’s the Hayek. And the red tie. And the shouting. And the fixing of children’s eyes. And the polite way he says, “Fuck you,” although I wish he’d be a little less polite about it.
Okay, must exit this conversation while I can still breathe.
I like you MoJo. I like the way you think.
Think of baseball and Madeline Albright naked. That always kills it for me.
Or finishes me off. Either way.
Simmer down, Stannis.
The Atlantic said Lindsey Graham is a serious candidate and Paul is floundering, though.
I also love how people talk about wanting politicians to cut out the bullshit talk and say what they really think (same with athletes/coaches), but the second they do, you have assholes accusing them of lacking decorum or, in this case, not being presidential ‘material.’ Because the guy in the White House now who takes selfies of himself is real fucking presidential. And its ok for him to cut off interviewers. But how dare Paul shush someone or question the sincerity of his opponents.
How the hell does Graham win an election? Who actually likes the guy? Who DOESN’T think he’s a closeted anti-gay gay who compensates with insanely stupid hawkish and authoritarian rhetoric?
If Graham were any deeper in the closet, he’d be running for president of Narnia.
He’d also lose that election, of course. But at least if he were foaming about the threat from Calormen, he’d be obsessing about someone in a position to be an actual threat.
He’s not butch enough to be the White Witch.
-jcr
Not just the Atlantic, but the same writer. Rand is apparently floundering despite currently having 8x the support of Lindsey.
Brochettaward|6.6.15 @ 7:58PM|#
“The Atlantic said Lindsey Graham is a serious candidate and Paul is floundering, though.”
That’s only ’cause the Atlanrtic staff understands Graham and is totally confused by Paul; he hasn’t stooped to their level yet.
“This is a person who said that he would use censorship if he needed to. This is the same person who said, “Well, when people ask for an attorney, you should tell them to shut up.” This is the same person who’s also said, “If they ask for a judge just drone ’em.””
That’s the stuff. Don’t treat Graham as a serious person, treat him as less intelligent than the other Lindsey:
http://media.hollywood.com/ima…..818807.jpg
That would be Lindsay.
whatevs
In addition to everything else you’re also a Valley Girl?
fer sure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb21lsCQ3EM
Valley Girls are now solidly into their mid-forties and fifties. Where the fuck has the time gone?
They’re still going on 16.
Time going indeed. The Beach Boys’ California Girls are Little Old Ladies From Pasadena now.
This Lindsey?
http://wsmv.images.worldnow.co…..77_BG2.jpg
, treat him as less intelligent
Fewer intelligent?
Lindsey Graham looks like someone tried to make a mask of Jack McBrayer out of over-proofed dough.
One of my favorite pictures of Graham: http://cdn.theatlantic.com/ass…..RYFYYA====
You don’t need gaydar here…
“Two convicted murderers serving life sentences staged an elaborate escape from the state’s largest prison overnight by fooling guards with dummies made out of sweatshirts and using power tools to drill a tunnel through the prison’s 30-foot-tall walls, officials said. The men remained on the loose late Saturday as law enforcement authorities conducted an extensive manhunt involving federal agents, state troopers and bloodhounds.
“The New York State Police said in an alert posted on Facebook early Saturday that the inmates, Richard Matt and David Sweat, had escaped from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, an all-male maximum security prison about 170 miles north of Albany near the Canadian border….
“Mr. Sweat was serving a sentence of life without the possibility of parole after being convicted of first-degree murder in the killing of a Broome County sheriff’s deputy in 2002, the police said. Prosecutors said he shot Deputy Kevin Tarsia 22 times, then stole several items from the deputy’s patrol car, including his .40-caliber Glock pistol.
“Mr. Matt is serving a sentence of 25 years to life after his conviction in Niagara County on robbery, kidnapping and murder charges. The police said the victim, William Rickerson, a 76-year-old businessman from North Tonawanda, was beaten to death and dismembered.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06…..times&_r=0
Instead of going with 30′ high, 3′ thick wall they should have built a 3′ high, 30′ thick wall.
Wait for them at H.I. McDunnough’s trailer.
GO FUCKIN BOLTS!… Stoopid mammals
“Rand Paul: Lindsey Graham ‘doesn’t rise beyond middle school kind of rhetoric'”
Boom… say ‘hello’ to Mr. Overhand Right.
Rand gives Graham more credit than the latter deserves.
Women have always been the primary victims of war. Women lose their husbands, their fathers, their sons in combat.
Had a feminist go off on me for saying this quote by Hillary is ludicrous. Do me a favor and build that damn fence, not to keep immigrants out, but to keep your feminists in.
“Had a feminist go off on me for saying this quote by Hillary is ludicrous.”
That person is full of shit and should have been informed of such.
If she had argued that over most of history women and children were treated as spoils of war then at least she would have had a point.
Yeah I’m sure the troops would love to hear that from their commander-in-chief.
This is a rush transcript. All quotes should be checked against the audio for accuracy.
What kind of middle school shit is this? Take some fucking pride in your work. Do your job right.
Lindsey Graham makes Corky from life goes on look like Albert Einstein
“I think the information in the cloud should get the same amount of protection as the information in the castle”
+1 Cosette
Fun fact: Rand Paul is more Austrian than Salzburg.
Sign of the apocalypse: I agree with the Guardian.
“In February, Omar Abdel el-Hussein attacked a conference in Copenhagen discussing whether Islamism was the fascism of the 21st century. His target appeared to be Lars Vilks, who had drawn disobliging cartoons of Muhammad. But it could have been any one of the artists or writers present. El-Hussein couldn’t get past security so he shot and killed a film director and wounded three police officers who stood in his way before running off to murder a volunteer guarding Copenhagen’s Great Synagogue. Once again, his victim died for no other reason than he was Jewish.
Nothing seems clearer to me than the belief that you must support free thought and fight racist murderers. But in the world we are moving into, governments won’t let you do both. They will say that if you want to be against antisemitism, racism, sexism or homophobia, you must restrict the very freedoms that make challenges to conventional wisdom possible. They will not let you defend the values of Charlie Hebdo and the shoppers at the Hypercacher at the same time and for the same reasons. You must betray one or the other.”
And this is particularly great:
“Elsewhere, European governments and judges go beyond the old liberal limits and make real and imagined hatred an offence. In the sinister words of George Osborne, they want to target people who “spread hate but do not break laws”.
I have often dismissed such authoritarianism with the chirpy riposte that if you cannot beat a neo-Nazi/Islamist/misogynist in argument then you shouldn’t be in the arguing business at all. It is not as if they have brilliant points to confound you. If you cannot take them on without calling for the cops, you should make way for someone who can.
Fine words. Yet in truth there is no vigorous argument against radical Islam in Europe. There are individual campaigners, many of them Muslims and ex-Muslims, whose bravery astonishes me. But an 18-year-old university student will not meet an anti-Islamist political culture that would force him to think again.
If he were a supporter of Ukip he’d have a hard time of it, but if he were heading towards militant religion and a flight to the Syrian border, his contemporaries would back off and hold that it was “Islamophobic” to challenge him.”
Well put, Irish.
Yeah, and Greenwald hits the nail on center at times, too.
If you’re tired of war don’t vote for me
http://hotair.com/archives/201…..te-for-me/
Lindsey Graham Strikes Back = Rand Paul has Fart Breath, and he will let ISIS Buttrape America
I don’t support nation-building, I support assisting the building of nations
http://hotair.com/archives/201…..f-nations/
As a nation, we’re almost as good at picking the ‘right’ people to back in building a nation as Obo is in picking investments for those good ol’ taxpayer dollars.
For some reason, 70 years ago, we seemed to do pretty well twice. Other than that, I’m at a loss. Hell, we even helped Castro and look where that got those poor folks.
Not like Japan gave us much choice.
For all the faults of the Germans and the Japanese, the reason we were able to nation build there was because they were not hypocrites. If they conquered someone, they expected them to submit, and when they were conquered, they were honorable enough to do the same.
The only honor found in the Arab world is the kind that causes you to throw acid in your daughter’s face.
Should have said Islamic, not Arab.
OT: Hermann Zapf, 1918-2015
For those who don’t recognize the name, Zapf was one of the great graphic designers of the 20th century, responsible for the typefaces Palatino and Optima. You might also recognize the name Zapf Chancery which appeared on a bunch of Windows systems.
Zapf, thankfully, did not invent Comic Sans.
He was a font of brilliance
So serif we all.
Fucking dingbats, show some respect.
Helvetica, Helvetica, Helvetica!
Yeah, well, he‘s dead too.
*flicks lighter*
I did not know that.
For display copy, it was pretty much the go-to as Times New Roman was for print. It became a surprise when a designer spec’d a different font, and almost unknown (outside of Museum work) when we used a serif font.
Fun film.
I need to follow the bread crumbs of your mind because I’m really enjoying this film.
Watch this next.
Comic Sans pictures is not funny.
*Flicks lighter*
I’ve used his fonts. He made good fonts. RIP, Zapf.
Seconded.
Also, his sketches are beautiful.
Incidentally, the story behind Comic Sans is kind of interesting.
An interview of the designer..
http://www.fonts.com/content/l…..comic-sans
Q WHAT DO YOU THINK OF COMIC SANS’ DETRACTORS?
A I think most of them secretly like Comic Sans ? or at least wish they had made it. Interesting fact: the main designer at Twitter tweeted that the most server space is used by complaints about: first, airlines; second, Comic Sans; and third, Justin Bieber. So not even The Bieber can beat Comic Sans!
Fun fact: When Rand Paul blinks, the Universe reboots.
The NSA has taken more of our civil liberties then ISIS who’s the bigger menace?
Cop kicks woman to death, tried and convicted. May serve up to three years! Three! That’s something, isn’t it?
Fun fact: Rand Paul believes the NSA is unnecessary, because he already knows what all you perverts do with your cellphones.
The stuff Graham says is the same kinds of things…what’s the lanky blond ol’ lady’s name? Ann Coulter!
The stuff Graham says today is the the same stuff Ann Coulter used to say ten years ago. Does anybody pay attention to Ann Coulter anymore?
I never did. I knew who she was, and a little bit of her went a really long way. I guess that stuff still flies on the ol’ timer circuit. The Grande Pubahs at the VFW in Lost Holler, SC probably think he’s great.
Ultimately, when the Republicans are successful nationally again, they’re gonna market themselves on the issues like Rand Paul is today. Actually, if Rand Paul can sell his message in Kentucky, there’s no need to restrict his appeal–he should be popular in the South, too. If Lindsey Graham weren’t humping Rand Paul’s leg, even fewer people would pay attention to him.
“[…]If Lindsey Graham weren’t humping Rand Paul’s leg, even fewer people would pay attention to him.[…]”
And I don’t think it hurts RP to call Graham on his BS, either. Graham is the clearly stated counterpoint; that against which RP runs.
Dont forget that Paul dominated a hand picked McConnell disciple. Also, Paul won bigger in rural KY than in the cities.
BTW, nothing about Greeks not bearing gifts?
“Greek PM between rock and hard place as clock ticks on deal”
(I’d say some banks and Ms. Merkle are, too!)
[…]
“Athens this week unexpectedly opted to bundle four IMF loan payments into a single one due by the end of June, giving the 40-year-old premier just weeks to reach an agreement”
(I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today!)
[…]
“However, with Tsipras under pressure from hard-left cynics within his party, another source involved in the talks dismissed his harsh words as “rhetorical”.”
(He’s a slimy lefty; he lies. That’s what lefties do. If he was drowning, I’d piss on him.)
http://news.yahoo.com/clock-ti…..24330.html
Fun fact: Rand Paul has never lost a staring contest.
I heard that he counted to infinity….. twice!
He cheated. He did itby alternating between odds and evens.
“He doesn’t always drink beer, but when he does, it’s Dos XX.
He is the most interesting man in the world.”
Nathaniel . although Stephanie `s rep0rt is super… I just bought a top of the range Mercedes sincee geting a check for $4416 this last four weeks and would you believe, ten/k last-month . no-doubt about it, this really is the best-job I’ve ever done . I actually started seven months/ago and almost straight away started making a nice over $79.. p/h….. ?????? http://www.worksite90.com
Google pay 97$ per hour my last pay check was $8500 working 1o hours a week online. My younger brother friend has been averaging 12k for months now and he works about 22 hours a week. I cant believe how easy it was once I tried it out.
This is wha- I do…… ?????? http://www.www.netcash5.com
Google pay 97$ per hour my last pay check was $8500 working 1o hours a week online. My younger brother friend has been averaging 12k for months now and he works about 22 hours a week. I cant believe how easy it was once I tried it out.
This is wha- I do…… ?????? http://www.netcash5.com
Google pay 97$ per hour my last pay check was $8500 working 1o hours a week online. My younger brother friend has been averaging 12k for months now and he works about 22 hours a week. I cant believe how easy it was once I tried it out.
This is wha- I do…… ?????? http://www.wage-report.com
Google pay 97$ per hour my last pay check was $8500 working 1o hours a week online. My younger brother friend has been averaging 12k for months now and he works about 22 hours a week. I cant believe how easy it was once I tried it out.
This is wha- I do…… ?????? http://www.wage-report.com
Prime Minister Tsipras needs your help ?now?
Too bad he left this one out; https://reason.com/blog/2015/03…..ly-use-the
Start making cash right now… Get more time with your family by doing jobs that only require for you to have a computer and an internet access and you can have that at your home. Start bringing up to $8596 a month. I’ve started this job and I’ve never been happier and now I am sharing it with you, so you can try it too. You can check it out here…
http://www.worktoday7.com
Greek spambots. What a pain in the ass.
Only Reason, Politico, and other blogs are writing about this, by the way.
None of the “MSM” news outlets seem to give a shit that Rand Paul is willing to give Lindsey Graham the finger. I did see a hit from a major paper referring to Graham’s criticism of Paul, though.
I make up to $90 an hour working from my home. My story is that I quit working at Walmart to work online and with a little effort I easily bring in around $40h to $86h? Someone was good to me by sharing this link with me, so now i am hoping i could help someone else out there by sharing this link… Try it, you won’t regret it!……
http://www.worktoday7.com
Google pay 97$ per hour my last pay check was $8500 working 1o hours a week online. My younger brother friend has been averaging 12k for months now and he works about 22 hours a week. I cant believe how easy it was once I tried it out.
This is wha- I do…… ?????? http://www.netcash5.com
Start making cash right now… Get more time with your family by doing jobs that only require for you to have a computer and an internet access and you can have that at your home. Start bringing up to $8596 a month. I’ve started this job and I’ve never been happier and now I am sharing it with you, so you can try it too. You can check it out here…
http://www.worktoday7.com
Rand sounds like Mr. Mackey from South Park.
Start making cash right now… Get more time with your family by doing jobs that only require for you to have a computer and an internet access and you can have that at your home. Start bringing up to $8596 a month. I’ve started this job and I’ve never been happier and now I am sharing it with you, so you can try it too. You can check it out here…
http://www.worktoday7.com