Home Depot Founder Langone: ‘Throw Edward Snowden A Party’

Edward Snowden has a lot of detractors, but Home Depot’s Ken Langone is not one of them — and he spoke out earlier this month on Fox News about what he says are heroic actions on the part of Snowden to expose NSA spying.

Ken Langone was not pulling punches when he discussed Snowden’s leaks with Neil Cavuto, in a clip now being circulated mainly by Reddit users. (The site, heavy in both left and right libertarian user base, strongly supports civil liberties and internet freedom.)

Redditors have been sharing and commenting on the Home Depot co-founder’s strong words about Edward Snowden, in which he commends the 29-year-old security contractor and says Americans should be grateful someone was willing to risk their own liberty to protect everyone’s privacy.

During the sit down with Cavuto, the clip above shows the men speaking about the then-recent actions by Snowden to expose NSA spying.

Langone, who appeared June 10 on the network, compares Snowden to Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg, and adds:

“What’s different about this young man now, letting this out? Tell me what’s different?”

When Cavuto asks Langone about how Snowden should be handled, the outspoken billionaire says “we don’t live in a society like this” before he replies:

I’d throw a party for him, I’d congratulate him… that’s what I’d do for him. I’d thank him for helping to protect America’s privacy rights… I think this young man showed a lot of courage and a lot of guts… and grit. And I think we ought to be grateful to have kids like that in America who understand the meaning of freedom and privacy and liberty.

It’s not clear whether the Home Depot co-founder feels as strongly today as he did two weeks ago, but few prominent people in the business sector stepped up to so boldly defend Edward Snowden in the wake of the NSA leaking scandal.