Rand Paul: Some of my critics secretly want a terrorist attack on the United States

Sounding more and more like his father every day.

Speaking from the Senate floor on Sunday, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said that some critics of his efforts to end the NSA’s bulk data collection and force an expiration of the Patriot Act “secretly want” terrorists to attack the United States.

"People here in town think I’m making a huge mistake. 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 that you caused this great attack?” It’s like the people who attack us are responsible for attacks on us. Do we blame the police chief for the attack of the Boston bombers?

"The thing is that there can be attacks even if we use the Constitution, but there have been attacks while collecting your bulk data. 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.”

"I’m completely convinced that we can obey the Constitution, use the Fourth Amendment as intended, spirit and letter of the law, and catch terrorists," Paul said.