Texas senator Ted Cruz now says Edward Snowden is a “traitor” who should be “tried for treason.” Cruz told the New York Times in a statement his current view on the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked the details of a classified surveillance program.
” It is now clear that Snowden is a traitor, and he should be tried for treason,” he said, according to the Times.
That’s a shift from Cruz’s position in 2013 after Snowden went public about the NSA’s program. Asked in June 2013 if Snowden was a traitor or a patriot, Cruz declined to answer:
Cruz also urged caution and against a “rush to judgment” on Snowden and the NSA program while speaking on Fox News in 2013.
One of Cruz’s rivals for the Republican nomination, fellow senator Marco Rubio, hit the Texan in November for his support for the USA Freedom Act, which modified intelligence programs in light of Snowden’s revelations. One libertarian Republican in Congress, Kentucky’s Thomas Massie, claimed the USA Freedom Act “exonerated” Snowden when it passed last June.
After Rubio criticized Cruz, THE WEEKLY STANDARD asked the Cruz campaign multiple times if the senator believed Snowden had violated the law. The campaign never replied. Cruz’s statement to the New York Times, however, appears to answer that question.
