Sen. Rand Paul is walking back statements he made on the Senate floor during the debate over the NSA and Patriot Act.
Last Sunday, Paul accused his political rivals of wanting a terror attack to occur so they can blame it on him.
“People here in town think I’m making a huge mistake,” he said. “Some of them I think secretly want there to be an attack on the United States so they can blame it on me.”
Now in an interview with Matt Welch of Reason Magazine, Paul said this his comments were an “overstatement.”
“I think that might have been hyperbole. Sometimes you get your juices flowing, and I was, at the moment, annoyed that it appeared they were trying not to let me speak. That may have been an overstatement, and it is,” said Paul.
Despite the doubt over his rhetoric, Paul still believes that supporters of the NSA use fear tactics to defend the surveillance program.
“I do believe that people use fear to allow the government to grow larger, and the surveillance state, the Patriot Act, and all of that stuff has come out of fear,” Paul said.
(The discussion over the comments begins at 4:50)
