Rep. Justin Amash’s unsuccessful July 24 effort to defund the National Security Agency’s dragnet collection of Americans’ call records failed in a close vote, 205 to 217.

Thursday morning, New Jersey’s Chris Christie threw a punch at surveillance skeptics like the Michigan Republican: “This strain of libertarianism that’s going through both parties right now … I think is a very dangerous thought.” “These esoteric, intellectual debates” won’t mean anything when “the next attack” kills “thousands of Americans.” “I remember what we felt like on Sept. 12, 2001,” Christie declared.

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