Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Sunday that he’s worried the current level of fear in the U.S. after last week’s attacks in Paris will result in Americans willingly giving up their privacy and liberty.
“You can keep giving up liberty, but in the end I don’t think we’ll be safer, but we may lose who we are as a people in the process,” Paul said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
A string of six attacks in Paris last week orchestrated by the Islamic State killed more than 100 people. In the wake of that, some U.S. officials have talked about the need to restart the National Security Administration’s metadata collection program, with the U.S. government aggressively monitoring phone calls.
But Paul said France has more data collection policies in place than the U.S. and still couldn’t detect and prevent the attacks.
“I think when you have a fearful time or an angry time, people are coached into giving up their liberty,” he said.
