PHILADELPHIA — As Congress barrels toward an end-of-the-month deadline where key PATRIOT Act authorities are set to expire, including the one used by the National Security Agency to justify its collection of phone records, Sen. Rand Paul is vowing to do “everything possible” to force an end to the program.

But he won’t say yet how far he’ll go.


Campaigning for president in Philadelphia on Monday, Paul called for an “immediate” end to dragnet surveillance to protect Americans’ constitutional right to privacy.

“That’s what we fought the revolution over!” Paul blared Monday afternoon to streams of cheering supporters in front of historic Independence Hall.

But pressed by reporters about how far he’d take the fight, Paul conceded defeat.

“We have the majority of votes outside the Beltway, but we do not not have a majority of the votes inside the Beltway,” Paul said. “Part of what I want to do is to rally the country, and rally the congressmen and senators and say, ‘Enough is enough.’ We do need to influence the process.”

At the same time, however, Paul stopped short of declaring he would hold the floor for hours on end and bring the chamber to an absolute standstill.

“I will do everything possible,” Paul said. “The rules are tricky in the Senate, so I don’t know what I can promise. We will do everything possible … to stop them.”

In the Senate this week, Paul’s campaign rhetoric will meet legislative reality.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a fellow Kentucky Republican, will need full cooperation to usher through an ambitious agenda before next week’s Memorial Day recess, seeking to pass the renewal of surveillance laws, a major trade promotion bill and an extension for highway programs in just a few short days. But Paul can trip up the Senate by objecting to virtually anything to register his objections over the PATRIOT Act, a move fraught with risks for the 52-year-old freshman senator.

If Paul doesn’t push hard enough, he could be accused of squandering his best chance yet to kill the law and failing to put his words into action. Yet if he pushes too hard, he could blow up McConnell’s agenda, infuriate much of his party and delay a congressional recess — while opening himself to charges that he’s being soft on terrorism.

Speaking to a few reporters at a crowded McDonald’s here in the heart of Philadelphia, Paul on Monday laid out his bottom-line demands as he chowed down on french fries: “guarantees” for votes on five or six of his amendments and ample debate before he agrees to move forward.

Among the goals of his amendments, according to his advisers: End the bulk data collection program — which was revealed by leaker Edward Snowden — and prevent the government from conducting backdoor searches on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

With supporters brandishing Paul campaign signs at an event rife with the symbolism of liberty and freedom, the senator’s rhetoric was much fierier.

“This week, we will have a great and momentous debate about the Fourth Amendment,” Paul said. “Our Founding Fathers would be appalled to know that we are writing one single warrant and collecting everyone’s phone records all the time.”

Asked whether he would try to block a two-month extension of the law, as McConnell is now seeking, Paul conceded he lacked the votes but would try to force a grass-roots uprising against it.

Paul has ample options at his disposal. He can force the reading of hundreds of pages of bill text, prevent committees from meeting and hold the Senate floor until he can no longer stand — as he did in 2013 during his nearly 13-hour filibuster over U.S. drone policy.

Despite often being in the minority in his own party, Paul has long played nicely with his colleagues. But he’s now running for president — and how he handles a fight in Congress central to his campaign could cast a long shadow over his campaign.

Paul’s push against the PATRIOT Act sets him apart from much of the 2016 field; many hopefuls support an extension of the NSA program and see it as a vital program to root out terrorism.

Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), for instance, are strong supporters of the program and back a long-term extension of current law. Another presidential candidate, Ted Cruz (R-Texas), backs a middle-ground approach known as the USA Freedom Act, which would end the bulk data collection program, making telephone companies responsible for the records that the NSA could access through a secret court order. That bill passed the House last week on an overwhelming 338-88 vote.

But in a sign of how challenging this debate is for the GOP, McConnell strongly opposes the USA Freedom Act — and wants to pass either a short-term PATRIOT Act extension or a 5½-year law with no changes. Two other expiring provisions must be dealt with as well — one to target suspected terrorists acting as “lone wolves” and another to allow intelligence officials to use “roving” wiretaps to track the movements of potential perpetrators.

What has given critics like Paul ample ammunition is a federal appeals court ruling this month that said the bulk data collection program was illegal and has never been authorized by Congress, so it’s unclear whether a short-term extension would even pass muster in court.

But Paul argues that the USA Freedom Act goes too far and would “expand” the existing PATRIOT Act. He also says it could make the court ruling against the NSA moot.

On a muggy Monday afternoon, Paul told his supporters that one senator asked him what would happen if the PATRIOT Act is defeated. Paul’s response: “Maybe, just maybe, we can rely on the Constitution for a few hours.” His supporters – waving signs that read “Defeat the Washington Machine; Unleash the American Dream” — erupted.

Paul’s swing through Philadelphia showcases his unorthodox campaign and his relentless push to court younger voters and minorities. While those demographic groups will not be as influential in early presidential primary states like Iowa and New Hampshire, Paul is making a concerted pitch to his party that he’s the lone candidate who can win back voters necessary to return a Republican to the White House in a general election.

“If I were the nominee, we would compete in Philadelphia,” Paul said in a 40-minute discussion at the National Constitution Center with Dom Giordano, a conservative radio talk show host here.

Citing his efforts to overhaul the criminal justice system, Paul said he would push Hillary Clinton on her husband’s tough-on-crime policies when he was president in the 1990s. “Your husband passed all the laws that put a generation of black men in prison,” he said of Clinton.

Yet at the same time, he said he would court younger voters by attempting to protect their privacy, particularly on their mobile devices and by battling expansive surveillance programs.

Still, even as he tries to woo voters with his libertarian-minded rhetoric, there are clear limits on how far he is willing to go. Paul, for instance, declined repeatedly to say whether he believes Snowden should be pardoned for leaking classified intelligence about the NSA program.

“You can’t always have an answer for everything,” Paul said before also attacking the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, for misleading the public about the NSA spying program. “I have said it would be just and informative to put Snowden and Clapper in the same cell.”

After his improbable victory in the 2010 Kentucky Senate race, Paul’s profile rose dramatically when he railed for nearly 13 hours on the floor against how Americans could be unconstitutionally targeted by U.S. drones. Reflecting on that Tuesday, Paul said it was part of a principled stand.

“In my mind, I think there are a few times when something rises to the occasion that is so important that you really have to take a stand on that issue,” Paul said to a standing-room crowd at the National Constitution Center. “I think things that affect your individual rights, your natural liberties, are things that are protected by the Bill of Rights.”

Whether Paul will replicate that same aggressive stand on the PATRIOT Act will be the key question in the Senate this week.