Rand Paul, usual defender of privacy rights, calls on media to out whistleblower

Rand Paul and Donald Trump.
(Image credit: Bryan Woolston/Getty Images)

The same Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) who has pledged to fight to protect Americans' privacy rights asked the media on Monday night to reveal the identity of the whistleblower whose complaint launched the impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

Paul made his request while attending President Trump's rally in Lexington, Kentucky, saying to cheers, "Do your job and print his name." Trump appreciated this, calling Paul's comments "excellent."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

It seems odd that Paul would demand the whistleblower's identity be released, considering he's usually the first one to get up and demand civil liberties not be infringed upon. In May 2015, the libertarian-leaning senator said the Republican Party "gets all caught up in the Second Amendment, which is fine, but we don't protect the Fourth Amendment enough. But actually, I think neither party ends up protecting the Fourth Amendment enough, which is the right to privacy." In January 2018, he decried the passage of a surveillance bill in the House, saying, "No American should have their right to privacy taken away."

Explore More
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.