Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican presidential candidate, often seems to stand alone in his fight to limit the government’s domestic surveillance capabilities. But on Monday, he thanked one of his biggest supporters: Matt Drudge.
“I think one of the things about Matt Drudge that’s probably made him so successful is that he doesn’t live in Washington and he’s not part of the Washington establishment,” Paul said in an interview with Breitbart News. “I think that if anybody is tapped into the grassroots of people who believe in limited government, it’s Matt Drudge. We’re excited that he tweets out and is supportive of our fight to keep the government from collecting all of our phone records.”
As far back as 2013, when the Edward Snowden NSA leaks were dominating headlines, Drudge, editor of the influential Drudge Report, has been an outspoken critic of the federal government spying on U.S. citizens.
“Snowden: A success,” Drudge wrote on Twitter in July of 2013. “No longer do people think you’re mad at mention of how we’re sleepwalking our way into endless surveillance culture…”
On May 21 this year, while Paul delivered a 10-hour speech on the Senate floor against U.S. government domestic surveillance programs, Drudge sent out a Twitter message to show his support.
“What kind of people want the government to spy on their phone calls? America sick. Getting sicker …” Drudge wrote. He included the hashtag “Stand with Rand,” a slogan popularized by Paul in 2013 when he delivered a similar speech against the Obama administration’s military drone policy.
Roughly two weeks later, Paul took to the Senate floor to speak out against reauthorization of the Patriot Act, which allows the government to amass the phone records of Americans.
On Twitter, Drudge linked to an online video of a portion of the speech, calling it “Rand’s most compelling speech of campaign.” He said it was “Big stuff in country that’s sadly moving away from freedom!”
Drudge’s support could serve as a boon for Paul, who currently polls in sixth place of the growing field of Republican presidential candidates, according to the RealClearPolitics average of national polls.
Drudge did not return a request for comment from the Washington Examiner media desk.
