Chris Christie called for Congress push to restore the National Security Agency’s metadata collection program as part of its forthcoming spending bill. In an exclusive interview with THE WEEKLY STANDARD Monday morning, the New Jersey governor and Republican presidential candidate also took on some of his fellow GOP rivals for supporting the law that ended that program.
Christie said Republicans should push to attach the restoration to the forthcoming omnibus spending bill Congress must pass by December 11 to continue funding the government. “I don’t think there’s anything more important for Republicans in Congress to do,” Christie said.
Christie criticized two of his presidential rivals, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, by name for supporting the USA Freedom Act earlier this year, which ended the metadata program. He likened both Cruz and Paul’s position to President Obama and Hillary Clinton and suggested the two Republicans supported ending the program to score “cheap political points.” “They both bear responsibility for making America less safe,” he said.
He also cited a recent Associated Press report that ending the metadata program has limited the FBI’s ability to examine phone records of the San Bernardino terrorists, with only records from the past two years available instead of the five years previously accessible.
A source close to the Cruz campaign told TWS the USA Freedom Act is not impeding the investigation and that the feds have access to enough phone records with a warrant. Christie, noting his own experience as a U.S. attorney prosecuting terrorists, dismissed that argument and said investigators ought to want more than just two years of data. “Senator Cruz has never done a terrorist investigation,” he said. “Once again showing the lack of experience of a one-term senator.”
What about another one-term senator and primary opponent, Senator Marco Rubio, who has been outspoken in favor of the metadata program? “I agree with Senator Rubio,” Christie admitted. “It does not make up for a lack of experience.”
