Napolitano: Liberties, Once Curtailed, Don't Come Back
Judge Andrew Napolitano joined Gerald Celente to discuss the erosion of American liberties that gained pace under George W. Bush.
Gerald Celente and Judge Andrew Napolitano held their “Celente and the Judge” YouTube broadcast on Wednesday and spoke about the erosion of American liberties in the post-9/11 era.
NAPOLITANO: George W. Bush was the least competent president in the post-WWII era. But he shrewdly used fear, fear of another 9/11 instrument to pass the Patriot Act, to amend the FISA act, to curtail our liberties. We that liberties, once curtailed, don't come back. Once the government gets its hand on our freedom… the government is fighting maniacally to get this Section 702 reinstated.
The Biden administration is trying to get Congress to renew the Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, “which enables spy agencies to collect swaths of emails and other communications,” The Associated Press reported.
The New York Times blasted “right-wing Republicans in Congress” for trying to end the “once-secret” program “created after the 9/11 attacks and described by intelligence officials as crucial to stopping overseas hackers, spy services and terrorists.”
VICTORIA ‘FUCK THE EU’ NULAND GETS A PROMOTION
NAPOLITANO: This thing expires every five years. So five years ago, [President Donald] Trump was in the White House and I was still at Fox [News]… the House and the Senate have passed a reenactment of it, trump had one more day to sign it or veto it… I was hosting “Fox & Friends” in the morning, I looked in the camera and said, “Mr. President, this law that they want you to sign… this is the same authority they used to spy on you, when you were in Trump Tower… my bosses were pissed off at me but I said it anyway. Trump tweets, “I'm not signing it.”
Well, in the next hour, Mike Pence, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell go running to the Oval Office and they say to Trump, “Don’t believe the judge. He thinks the constitution means what it says.”
Trump sends me a message, “They twisted my arm I had to sign it.” Trump has since said to me he will never sign it again.
Napolitano noted that Trump said the same thing about the JFK assassination files, only to later change his mind.