Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie said Tuesday that Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, made America less safe by voting to end the government’s bulk collection of phone data.
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough asked Christie on “Morning Joe” whether the position of Cruz and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on metadata collection have made America less safe.
“Yes,” Christie said.
“So, Ted Cruz has made America less safe?” Scarborough asked.
“Sure he has. He went for the easy, political vote at a time when, you know, it looked like it was kind of a popular thing to do. With all of those dead Parisians, it doesn’t look so popular anymore.”
The issue of when and how the federal government can collect intelligence from Americans has split the party in the last few years, after Edward Snowden told the country the metadata program exists. Those worried about the reach of government supported scaling back the program, but those worried about future terrorists attacks have warned that the program should not have been scaled back.
Another GOP candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is a member of the latter group, and just last month he also criticized Cruz and others for voting to change the program.
“At least two of my colleagues in the Senate aspiring to the presidency, Sen. Cruz in particular, have voted to weaken the U.S. intelligence programs,” he said in November.
