Former National Security Agency Director Michael Hayden had harsh words for Sen. Rand Paul and his strong opposition to the Patriot Act.
“I think it’s really unfortunate,” Hayden said on “Fox News Sunday” about Paul’s consistent criticism of the NSA.
Paul’s critiques have warped the debate over the expiring provisions of the Patriot Act — for the worse, Hayden said.
“We get to draw the line all the time between liberty and security,” Hayden said.
“Let’s do it based on facts. Why would we give up things that the professionals say make us safer?” Hayden, also a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, asked.
“If you’re asking me what I would do in a perfect world, I’d reauthorize the Patriot Act,” he said to Fox News host Chris Wallace, before saying Paul has made the debate over the Patriot Act more dramatic than it actually is.
“Intelligence is fundamentally boring,” he said. “It’s not what you see on TV at night. It is just piece by piece, thread by thread.”
And Paul’s extreme concerns over the constitutional basis of the NSA’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records?
“We are not talking about a constitutional matter,” Hayden said of the data collection. “We have no reasonable expectation of privacy there. We might be talking about a legal matter.”
The Senate will return to Capitol Hill on Sunday night in an attempt to reauthorize provisions of the Patriot Act before it expires at midnight.
