Paul says the former secretary of state's handling of Benghazi should keep her from the presidency. Paul continues Clinton attacks

DALLAS – Rand Paul continued his assault on Hillary Clinton and trumpeted the potential of his own brand of libertarian-infused Republicanism in a Friday afternoon speech to several thousand small-government and tea party activists.

The annual summit of the Americans for Prosperity proved predictably fertile turf for the Kentucky senator, who grew raucous cheers by repeatedly lambasting the federal government’s intelligence-related data collection.


“There are things the government has to do. There are things the government needs to do. But, frankly, when you’re looking at your cell phone, listening to a download from the Internet, it’s none of the government’s damn business,” declared Paul, a prospective 2016 GOP presidential candidate.

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Paul bemoaned Washington dysfunction – quipping “we are so dysfunctional that we cannot pass legislation even when we agree on it” – and called for term limits to bring in fresh blood.

He mocked President Barack Obama over the controversies that have plagued his second term.

“It’s sorta like the old MacDonald’s farm of scandals. Here a scandal, there a scandal, everywhere a scandal,” Paul jabbed, adding of Obama’s ISIS strategy “If the president has no strategy, maybe it’s time for a new president.”

( PHOTOS: 10 quotes about Hillary Clinton and Benghazi)

But Paul saved special scorn for Clinton, the prospective frontrunner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, specifically highlighting her role in the events surrounding the deadly 2012 attacks on American consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

“If she wants to be commander in chief and she cannot protect our embassies, I don’t think that she could or should be,” Paul said. “I think it precludes her from ever being considered as commander in chief.”

Addressing criticism that his scrutiny of Benghazi is politically motivated, Paul said “Yeah, politics is what happens to discuss whether people are fit for office. There will be a discussion over the next four years whether or not Hillary Clinton is fit to lead this country.”

He was speaking on the opening day of a summit organized by Americans for Prosperity, the flagship of a robust small-government political network fronted by the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, whose own conservatism is similarly grounded in libertarianism. The summit had a presidential-cattle-call-type feel, with Paul’s speech preceded by ones from Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Dr. Ben Carson. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is set to speak Saturday.

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Paul was introduced by AFP Director Frayda Levin, who has become a member of his inner circle and provided a deeper entrée for him into Koch World. Noting that Paul had more Facebook likes than Clinton, Levin praised him for going “where few Republicans have dared to go. He goes to the inner city and he goes to minority communities and he talks to them about the dangers of government.”

When Paul took the stage, he picked up the theme, suggesting his civil-liberty-focused conservatism made him uniquely equipped to expand the GOP electorate. “If we are a party that’s going to win again, we have to be a bigger party.” Boasting “I’ve been going where Republicans haven’t gone,” Paul said it’s important to “take the message of personal liberty and economic liberty … across the country and we can be the dominant party again.”

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