If Republicans were so worried about illegal surveillance, wouldn't they be pushing to pardon Snowden? Republicans are going crazy over a FISA memo that might show a Trump associate was surveilled for politically motivated, illegal reasons. I wrote about all that on Steemit here. Meanwhile, Snowden still sits in Russia, unable to return to the United States, and most Republicans don't seem worried about that at all. If Republicans (and any politicians for that matter) are really this worried about illegal surveillance, why aren't they pardoning Snowden and bringing him back? Where were they back then?
To me, that makes this all smell more like partisan politics rather than breaking news we can rely upon. With this in mind, I'd read the memo with a skeptical eye, double checking everything and not taking anything on face value. Of course, I'd approach the Democrats' counter-memo the same way if it were released.
If they were really this concerned about illegal surveillance, they'd work on pardoning Snowden, wouldn't they?
I'm not the first person to point out hypocrisy connected to the memo. In fact, Rand Paul talked about it recently when the FISA reform was approved. Paul tweeted last week: "Irony alert: House Intel members who shoved fake reform of FISA, a day later reveal bombshell evidence that FISA was abused by Obama officials." Paul has said that if FISA was abused under the Obama administration, then no administration should have the power to surveil American citizens without a warrant.
Of course, I doubt the Democrats would be any different. It's not like they've been trying to pardon Snowden either.
What do you think? Is this comparison fair?
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