NASHVILLE — Expected Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush on Saturday took issue with GOP rival Rand Paul over renewal of the Patriot Act, saying, “I think the law has kept us safe, plain and simple.”
Speaking with reporters before an address to Tennessee Republicans’ annual fundraising dinner here in Nashville, the former Republican Florida governor, whose brother George W. Bush as president pressed for the law, said, “there’s been no violation of civil liberties.”
“And protecting the homeland has to be one of the first and most important obligations for people who are serving in Washington, D.C.,” Bush said. “And I hope the Patriot Act is renewed.”
Paul, the U.S. senator from Kentucky who has been critical of the National Security Agency and a White House hopeful, issued a statement earlier Saturday saying, “tomorrow, I will force the expiration of the NSA illegal spy program.”
He said, “I do not do this to obstruct. I do it to build something better, more effective, more lasting, and more cognizant of who we are as Americans.”