On Fox News Monday morning, Republican presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul (R., KY) walked back a statement he made on the Senate floor Sunday accusing some of his opponents "secretly want there to be an attack on the United States" so they can blame him.
Sunday, Paul successfully blocked the renewal of the NSA' authority to collect metadata, at least temporarily. During his fiery remarks Sunday, Paul unloaded on his opponents:
PAUL: People here in town think I’m making a huge mistake. Some of them, I think, secretly want there to be an attack on the United States so they can blame it on me… The thing is, there can be attacks even if we use the Constitution, but there have been attacks while collecting your bulk data.
Monday morning Paul told Fox News' Bill Hemmer that the accusation was "hyperbole" stated "in the heat the battle," but that his overarching point about his opponents' "use of fear" still stood:
PAUL: I think sometimes, in the heat of battle, hyperbole can get the better of anyone. That may be the problem there. The point I was trying to make is that I think people do use fear to try to get us to give up our liberty.
