Hillary Clinton continues to falter as she makes the rounds to promote her new memoir Hard Choices. During an appearance on Fox News’ On the Record, host Greta Van Susteren repeatedly pressed Clinton on the constitutionality of the National Security Agency and its surveillance techniques. Clinton did not respond well to the line of questioning.
“Greta Van Susteren had Hillary Clinton on yesterday, and I thought she did a great job,” Glenn said on radio this morning. “Hillary Clinton on the other hand… I'm so tired of all of these politicians. They're all exactly the same. Hillary Clinton is no different than John Boehner would be… We can't be the only group of people that are sick of this. I mean, honestly, I don't know who's watching interviews like this anymore.”
Van Susteren asked – point blank – if the NSA spying on Americans violates the Fourth Amendment, and Clinton dodged the question.
“Madam Secretary, you’re a lawyer, President Obama is a lawyer, I’m a lawyer and NSA spying on Americans violates the Fourth Amendment. It couldn’t be plainer. If you want to spy on Americans you get a warrant,” Van Susteren said. “What do you think about that?”
“Well, I think that we’re finally taking stock of the laws that we passed after 9/11. I voted for some and I voted against some,” Clinton said. “And people are saying, ‘Wait a minute. We did all of this in an emergency, in a hurry because we were, you know, understandably worried and scared, and now we need to take a step back and figure out how we make sure that the balance between liberty and security is absolutely right for America.’”
Not pleased with her response, Van Susteren then followed up by questioning the potentially illegal search and seizure conducted by the NSA without a warrant, and Clinton once again spoke in circles – noting laws were passed post-9/11 that gave the government a “very broad authority” which was “endorsed by executives in two administrations.”
“And I think what has happened is people have said, ‘Okay, the emergency is over and we want to get back to regular order. We want to make sure that we’re not being spied on, that our privacy is not being violated — so we want you to keep us safe, we want you to protect us, but we don’t want Americans to be in any way fearful of their own government’s actions,’” she said.
Van Susteren continued to press the former Secretary of State on the NSA in relation to the Fourth Amendment. Watch the entire exchange below:
“She's always duplicitous. And it is most politicians but this was in particular agonizing,” Pat said of Clinton. “What Greta was saying is so clearly true. What the NSA has done and is doing is completely unconstitutional.”
Glenn was particularly struck by quickly Clinton distanced herself from the NSA even though her served as a Senator during President George W. Bush’s presidency and was Secretary of State in the Obama Administration.
“Notice she has backed away from both… [But] she was in the Senate under Bush and she was in the Administration on this one,” Glenn said. “You know what's amazing is she says the emergency is over. I don't know anybody who thinks the emergency is over. That we are more safe today. We are just more awake today and going, ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute. Wait a minute. We made a huge mistake.’”