Marco Rubio Calls Letting Patriot Act Expire a 'Mistake'

With the U.S. Senate passing the “USA Freedom Act” on Tuesday after letting the Patriot Act expire, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., tore into President Barack Obama’s security policies. Rubio, who voted against the “USA Freedom Act,” also took a shot at Republican presidential primary rival U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., for helping kill the Patriot Act due to concerns about the National Security Agency (NSA) gathering phone records of American citizens. 

“Because the U.S. remains the freest nation on earth, we will always be targeted by those who attempt to exploit our society’s openness to further their twisted ideology,” Rubio said on Tuesday. “Unfortunately, weak presidential leadership combined with a politically motivated misinformation campaign have now left the American people less safe than we’ve been at any point since the 9/11 attacks.
 
“The failure to renew the expiring components of the Patriot Act was a mistake. The ‘USA Freedom Act’ weakens U.S. national security by outlawing the very programs our intelligence community and the FBI have used to protect us time and time again," Rubio added. “A major challenge for the next president will be to fix the significantly weakened intelligence system that the current one is leaving behind‎.”