Donald Trump either does not understand or does not have much respect for the Constitution, Rand Paul said Wednesday.
Trump, the Republican front-runner, said he “would certainly be open to closing [the Internet] in areas where we are at war with somebody” at the CNN Republican debate Tuesday. The billionaire businessman was referencing shutting off parts of the Internet that helped incite or facilitate terrorism.
But Paul said following Trump’s strategy was fundamentally against the Constitution.
“If you’re going to close the Internet — that’s like something they do in North Korea, something like they do in China — but it also goes against the Constitution. It goes against the First Amendment,” he said on “America’s Newsroom” on Fox News.
“Closing the Internet would require a change to our Constitution where we get rid of the First Amendment. That’s a big step,” he said.
Paul dismissed Trump’s current standing in the 2016 horse race, saying that the polls could change in a matter of weeks.
“The polls are very fluid. Ben Carson, who I like a lot, has dropped 20 points,” the Kentucky Senator said. “Same thing could happen to Trump.”
Paul painted to one of Trump’s positions on terrorists as being potential popularity shifters.
“He’s talking about killing women and children — the families of terrorists,” he said. “I don’t think many Americans want to kill two-year-old children or four-year-old children.”
