Rand Paul: Deep State is rising
By Caroline Biscotti, December 5, 2018
The so-called “Deep State” of unelected bureaucrats whose agendas often are at odds with the best interest of the American people isn’t new.
But it’s drawing attention as never before, and now Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is warning the “Deep State” is rising.
Paul was reacting to a briefing by CIA Director Gina Haspel on the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi in which only a select few senators were admitted.
“This is the very definition of the Deep State,” the Republican senator said. “The Deep State is that the intelligence agencies do things, conclude things, make conclusions, but then the elected officials are prevented from knowing about this.
“If we aren’t told about this and I’m not allowed to know about these conclusions, then I can’t have oversight … the Deep State grows and has more and more power.”
See video of Paul’s remarks:
Members of the “Deep State” within the Trump administration have been accused of leaking information to harm the president politically.
Just this week, allegedly tried to infiltrate the Trump campaign on behalf of the Obama administration.
Investigative journalists already have captured on video “Deep State” members boasting of undermining Trump.
Haspel’s meeting was with leaders of the Senate Armed Services, Foreign Relations, and Intelligence Committees.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has insisted there is “no smoking gun” tying Saudi Arabia’s crown prince to the death of Khashoggi.
But Paul said: “I’ve read in the media that the CIA has said with high confidence that the crown prince was involved with killing Khashoggi. I have not seen that intelligence nor have I even seen the conclusions. Today there is yet another briefing, and I’m being excluded from that. So really, this is the Deep State at work that your representatives don’t know what’s going on in the intelligence agencies.”
Trump has said he doesn’t know if anyone can definitively conclude the crown prince was involved in the death of Khashoggi, who entered the Saudi consulate in Turkey and died shortly after.
Even a counselor to five presidents and founder of Family Talk has said the “Deep State” in Washington must be confronted.
He describes the problem without using the term “Deep State.” He spoke instead of “unelected bureaucrats” and “activist judges” who are widely considered to be the core of the problem.
And he explained the nation’s Founders provided the solution, in Article V of the Constitution, which allows for a Convention of the States.
It’s the alternative to proposing amendments to the U.S. Constitution that must be ratified by two-thirds of the states.
In a statement released by the James Dobson Family Institute with Tim Clinton and Jenna Ellis recently, Dobson said: “Unfortunately, an insidious power grab has been underway in our nation’s capital for many years and it has inflicted great damage upon our constitutional republic. Unelected bureaucrats, activist judges, and the ever-expanding scope, reach and invasion of the federal government into the lives of all Americans has far surpassed what our Founders ever intended.”
“Thankfully the drafters of our Constitution built in safeguards to restore the size of government to its proper limits through amendments as outlined in Article V of the U.S. Constitution,” the statement says.
“Of the two paths an amendment can travel, all 27 have thus far been initiated in Congress. A Convention of States is the second path, which doesn’t allow a rewriting of the Constitution as some have suggested, but rather allows the state legislatures to propose needed amendments to restrain the federal government when Congress fails to act.”
The statement said the “genius of our Founding Fathers is on full display in the Convention of the States Article V process, which empowers ‘We the People’ at a local level to continue preserving and protecting the fundamental rights of every individual and keeping America’s limited government in check.”
“Thirty-four states must call a convention to order and already 12 have passed the petition. A Convention of the States can and should be called,” it said.
