Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., says his office is getting deluged with phone calls in support of his colleague Sen. Rand Paul’s, R-Ky., campaign to end dragnet surveillance enabled by the Patriot Act.

But in an interview on Friday with radio station KTOK in Oklahoma City, Inhofe dismissed his constituents, claiming that privacy advocates don’t understand that “we’re in the most threatened position in the history of this country.”

The senator argued “countries like North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Syria, all of them are on the path to getting bombs and delivery systems that would reach the United States of America and could have the effect of killing everyone who is listening now.”

Inhofe went on to say that “everyone in the leadership except the president of the United States” recognizes the threat he was describing, adding, “when you stop and think and make a choice between having a complete city bombed out and privacy, my choice is easy.”

Listen to the Inhofe’s remarks here:

