Rand Paul: Snowden and Clapper Should Both Go to Prison
Sen. Rand Paul, symbol of Republican rebranding, bravely stood up today and suggested throwing everybody in jail. Because that’s the libertarian way.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Sunday suggested that former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper should share a prison cell in the U.S.
“Maybe if they served in a prison cell together, we’d become further enlightened as a country over what we should and shouldn’t do,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Paul said that he does not believe Snowden deserves harsh punishment for his leaks, but believes that both Snowden and Clapper broke the law.
“So James Clapper did break a law and there is a prison sentence for that. So did Edward Snowden,” he said. “I don’t think Edward Snowden deserves the death penalty or life in prison. I think that’s inappropriate. And I think that’s why he fled, because that’s what he faced.”
Of course, I had to find out what our pal Glenn Greenwald had to say about this, because normally the mere suggestion that Edward Snowden should not get off scot free throws him into paroxysms of rage, but he was oddly silent for some reason.