Allen West On Censoring the Media

Allen West and other Tea Party candidates campaigned on restoring the Constitution to government. West's love for the Constitution doesn't extend to the First Amendment. West advocates on censoring the media.

WEST: There are different means by which you can be attacked. I mean it doesnt have to be a bomb or an airplane flying into a building. It doesn’t have to be a shooting. It can be through cyber attacks, it could be through leaking of very sensitive classified information. Regardless of whether you think it causes any harm, the fact that here is an individual that is not an American citizen first and foremost, for whatever reason gotten his hands on classified American material and put it out there in the public domain. And I think that we also should be censoring the American news agencies which enabled him to do this and also supported him and applauding him for the efforts. So that’s kind of aiding and abetting of a serious crime.

This same argument was made by conservatives when the Pentagon Papers were released. The Pentagon Papers revealed the government lying about the Vietnam war. It is interesting that conservative like West don't trust government with their taxes but is willing to belive the government would never lie about its foreign policy. West is willing to let the State Department operate in secret without oversight from the fourth estate. That is counter to how a democracy operates