Rand Paul: Snowden triggered surveillance reforms
Presidential candidate appeared at San Diego GOP dinner

Sen. Rand Paul said Saturday that former national security contractor Edward Snowden changed the political climate and helped open doors to government surveillance reform.

The GOP presidential candidate stopped short of saying whether Snowden should be prosecuted for leaking documents about secret government mass surveillance programs.

“I don’t think that’s really up to me. I think he did break the law and I think that we can’t have people making their own mind up to reveal secrets,” the Kentucky senator said in an interview at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront hotel. Later, he addressed more than 700 people at the Republican Party of San Diego County’s annual Lincoln Reagan Dinner.

Paul added that Director of National Security James Clapper should also face scrutiny. Clapper misled Congress when he told members that the government wasn’t collecting bulk phone records, when it was, Paul said.

“You can’t have either one,” he said of the acts by Snowden and Clapper. “I’ve kind of flippantly said that they should share the same cell.”

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