Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is one of the key reasons the national-security wing of the Republican Party lost the Patriot Act debate, former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy tells
Newsmax TV.
"We've clearly lost it and a lot of that has to do with Sen. Paul," McCarthy said Wednesday on "The Steve Malzberg Show."
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"As a constitutional scholar, Sen. Paul makes a pretty good ophthalmologist, but … as absurd as the constitutional claims he's made against the Patriot Act have been, they nevertheless have resonated with a lot of people, unfortunately.
"People on our side of the debate have not done a good job, particularly the government people, of defending this program and explaining why it's important."
Last week, Paul, who has declared his candidacy for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, took over the Senate floor to deliver a nearly 11-hour protest against renewal of the Patriot Act, calling it unnecessary intrusion into Americans' privacy. The House later overwhelmingly passed a bill to end the bulk collection by a vote of 338-88.
McCarthy — former Asst. U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and author of
"Faithless Execution: Building the Political Case for Obama's Impeachment," published by Encounter Books — says lawmakers have allowed the media to weave a narrative about the Patriot Act not based in reality.
"What we hear again and again is that there's no direct correlation between having this metadata program and thwarting terrorist attacks," McCarthy told Steve Malzberg.
"The problem with that is that the point of the program is not to thwart terrorist attacks as much as we hope that it does, the point of the program is to help us map terrorist cells, figure out their membership and track down their funding sources so that those can be choked off.
"Moreover, the way intelligence works, much like the way evidence works in criminal prosecutions, it's rare that a single piece of evidence is the one that you can say that's what we're basing proof on or that's what we're basing our conviction on. It's a mosaic. It's all kinds of information that rolls in together."
The White House says the Patriot Act is vital to national security and President Barack Obama has called on the Senate to break from its Memorial Day recess in a bid to hammer out a last minute deal before the act expires Sunday at midnight.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has ordered senators back to Washington for a impromptu Sunday session.
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