Greg Gutfeld Calls Rand Paul Despicable After Ending PATRIOT Act

Greg Gutfeld on Fox News had harsh words for Rand Paul after the Kentucky senator almost single-handedly caused the PATRIOT act to sunset. Gutfeld launched into Paul, calling him “despicable,” after Paul suggested that some Republicans secretly hoped for a terror attack so they could blame it on him.

From Nick Morpus at Rare:

“The worst thing about Rand Paul, what makes him despicable, is saying that Republicans want a terrorist attack so they can blame him,” Gutfeld exclaimed. He then said believes that Paul is trying to play the victim in this situation rather than acknowledging the victims of terrorism. Gutfeld called Paul a “fool” for the use of such rhetoric.

However, further into the quote Gutfeld cites, you find that Paul’s suspicions may be grounded in reality rather than some complex of self-victimization. During Sunday’s debates over the reauthorization of the Patriot Act, Paul explained that some have asked if he would feel responsible if there was an attack after the lapse of these programs.

“Some of them I think secretly want there to be an attack on the United States so they can blame it on me. One of the people in the media the other day came up to me and said, oh, when there’s a great attack aren’t you going to feel guilty you caused this attack?

So the ones who say when an attack occurs it’s going to be all your fault, are any of them willing to accept the blame, we have bulk collection now, are any of them willing to accept the blame for the Boston bombing, for the recent shooting in Garland?

No, but they’ll be the first to point fingers and say, oh, yeah it’s all your fault, we never should have given up on this great program.”

As the quote shows, this was not some attempt to self-victimize, but rather to explain the logic of those who would blame privacy advocates for terrorist attacks.