Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., says his office is getting deluged with phone calls in support of his colleague Sen. Rand Paul’s, R-Ky., campaign to end dragnet surveillance enabled by the Patriot Act.
But in an interview on Friday with radio station KTOK in Oklahoma City, Inhofe dismissed his constituents, claiming that privacy advocates don’t understand that “we’re in the most threatened position in the history of this country.”
The senator argued “countries like North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Syria, all of them are on the path to getting bombs and delivery systems that would reach the United States of America and could have the effect of killing everyone who is listening now.”
Inhofe went on to say that “everyone in the leadership except the president of the United States” recognizes the threat he was describing, adding, “when you stop and think and make a choice between having a complete city bombed out and privacy, my choice is easy.”
Listen to the Inhofe’s remarks here:
The future of the Patriot Act is in flux as the House of Representatives leaves Washington for a Memorial Day recess week. Several important sections of the Patriot Act expire at the end of the month. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has called for a series of votes this weekend on separate proposals, including a full reauthorization of the Patriot Act and the USA Freedom Act, which would codify the bulk collection of metadata while adding privacy reforms to the process.
Inhofe later moved on from the NSA and privacy during the interview, telling KTOK that he is focused on working to “stop the EPA over-regulation that’s killing our farmers and a lot of our businesspeople.” Notably, the Environmental Protection Agency has not killed any farmers or business people.
(This post is from our blog: Unofficial Sources.)
Photo: Senator Jim Inhofe, (Brendan Smialowski/Getty)
IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT.
What we’re seeing right now from Donald Trump is a full-on authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government.
This is not hyperbole.
Court orders are being ignored. MAGA loyalists have been put in charge of the military and federal law enforcement agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency has stripped Congress of its power of the purse. News outlets that challenge Trump have been banished or put under investigation.
Yet far too many are still covering Trump’s assault on democracy like politics as usual, with flattering headlines describing Trump as “unconventional,” “testing the boundaries,” and “aggressively flexing power.”
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IT’S BEEN A DEVASTATING year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
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I’M BEN MUESSIG, The Intercept’s editor-in-chief. It’s been a devastating year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
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