Edward Snowden Quotes

The goal isn't, and shouldn't be, to block Hillary Clinton. The goal is to make sure a potential President Clinton is beholden to a better Congress and a better Democratic Party.

The President is accountable only to the country.

Decency, security and liberty alike demand that government officials shall be subjected to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen. In a government of laws, existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously.

There are extremely few places in the world where the citizens believe their political leaders will be punished if they disobey the law.

Government is the creature of the people, and that which they have created they surely have a right to examine.

In the year 2010, Kenya adopted a new constitution. With that constitution, we further secured the human rights and civil liberties of our citizens and entrenched constitutional governance and justice.

The president can violate the law, and when he does, he is supposed to be held accountable. That is supposed to be one of the pillars of our democracy.

In a case involving his private conduct, a President should be treated like any private citizen. The rule of law requires no more - and no less.

We need a return to transparency and a system of checks and balances, to a president who respects Congress' role of oversight and accountability.

Even if you assume presidents were democratically elected they still have no right to keep secrets from the American people.

Democracy cannot breathe, indeed will die, if those enjoined to protect it and uphold the laws snuff it out - with no consequences.

The essential nature of a democracy compels it to insist that individual power of all kinds, political, economic, or intellectual, shall not be perversely and irresponsibly exercised.

Somebody had to bring the truth to the doorstep of this president.

I think the voters believe that when you become president of the United States, you have a higher obligation and a higher standard than anybody in the world. And if you violate that standard, they're going to remember it on election day.

The Constitution was not written to restrain the citizen's behavior, it was writtne to restrain the government's behavior.

There are a lot of things that I really question - the legality of the drone strikes, these NSA revelations. Jimmy Carter came out and said we don’t live in a democracy. That’s a little intense when an ex-president says that. So you know, he’s got some explaining to do, particularly for a constitutional law professor.

No President should fear public scrutiny of his program. For from that scrutiny comes understanding; and from that understanding comes support or opposition and both are necessary.

The president cannot escape from his office.

When people ask if the United States can afford to place on trial the president, if the system can stand impeachment, my answer is, "Can we stand anything else?

Although Israel was founded based on the historic Jewish homeland and the need to have a Jewish homeland, Israeli democracy has been premised on everybody in the country being treated equally and fairly. And I think that that is what's best about Israeli democracy.

Scandals are the fertilizer of Western democracy.

Mr. President, you’re entitled as a president to your own airplane, and to your own house, but not to your own facts.

I will criticize President Obama on this level: it's a good thing I'm not president because I would prosecute every person that was involved in that torture. I would prosecute the people that did it. I would prosecute the people that ordered it. Because torture is against the law.

The American way is to criticize and debate openly, not to accept unthinkingly the doings of government officials of this or any other country.

What are we going to do if citizens are disarmed, and the government doesn't obey its own laws?