During an interview on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders called out the Republican presidential hopefuls for proposals that would undermine the US Constitution.
Clip from the interview via MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports:
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Transcript via MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports:
MITCHELL: Let’s talk about the tech area and what Clinton was proposing yesterday, because you also tweeted right before her speech that we can’t return, in terms of security. You said I believe strongly we can protect our security — excuse me, protect our people without undermining our constitutional rights. I worry we’re moving to an Orwellian society.
SANDERS: Well, that’s right. Look, everybody knows that ISIS and al Qaeda and international terrorism are huge threats to this country. And I believe we’ve got to crush ISIS. I think we have to do it through an international coalition with Muslim troops on the ground supported by the United States, Western Europe, and Russia. And I think domestically we have got to do everything that we can technologically to make sure that we do not allow sleeper cells to develop, or we allow communication that takes place within ISIS groups.
But on the other hand, this is what I do believe. We cannot as a nation going around saying we are a free society and yet undermine the Constitution of the United States of America.
So if the question, Andrea, is do I believe we can crush ISIS, that we can destroy international terrorism, but that we can do it in a way that preserves our constitutional rights? I do. So no one is arguing that we should not be vigorous, but some of us believe that we do have a constitution and that freedom in this country is extremely important.
MITCHELL: Do you believe that Silicon Valley should do more, should cooperate more with government, to try to take down some of these ISIS communications?
SANDERS: I do, absolutely. And these guys understand the issue and have more influence and more understanding of what is going on than any other sector in the world. And they have got to play a vigorous role.
But to destroy ISIS, we have got to do a number of things. And as I have said many times, Andrea, in terms of our foreign policy, I think that the war, the invasion of Iraq, was a horrendous mistake. I don’t want to see that repeated; I don’t want to see the United States alone going into the region. We need a strong coalition. King Abdullah is right when he talks about this being a struggle for the soul of Islam. Muslim boots on the ground supported by the United States. Here in this country, working with the high-tech companies to do everything that we can to shut off the communication capabilities of ISIS and sleeper groups.
Proposals that would undermine the Constitution were littered all through the Republican presidential debate. Republicans advocated for censoring the Internet, spying on American citizens, unlimited snooping and data collection, and generally used national security as an excuse to advance policies that would trample on the constitutional rights of American citizens.
Republicans wave the flag with one hand while taking away our freedoms with the other.
The overarching theme of the debate was that Republican national security policy has not moved an inch from where it was when George W. Bush was president. If Republicans have changed at all, it has been to become more extreme in tossing aside the constitution. The party of small government has firmly embraced Big Brother.
All of the Republicans on the debate stage, with the exception of Rand Paul, were pushing for a return to the Bush years. Sen. Sanders was correct. Republicans have shown a willingness to undermine the Constitution by using national security as a blanket excuse to take away the right of our people to live in a free society.
It turns out that the “socialist” who Republicans hate values freedom more than the “patriots” who are running for president in the Republican Party.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
