The Senate’s fight over reauthorizing the Patriot Act has become a battleground for likely GOP presidential candidates.
After Rand Paul’s filibuster and refusal to support McConnell’s last-minute attempts to reauthorize the law, both Chris Christie and Scott Walker renounced Paul’s efforts to curtail the NSA’s metadata gathering program.
And, Rand being Rand, he’s already hit right back, accusing Walker of being “willing to trample the Constitution.”
On Saturday, Christie tweeted a series of barely-veiled attacks on Paul, referencing “misguided ideologues who have no real world experience in fighting terrorism”:
The Senate’s failure to extend the Patriot Act is a failure of the US gov’t to perform its most important function – protecting its citizens
— Chris Christie (@ChrisChristie) May 23, 2015
This is the unfortunate result of misguided ideologues who have no real world experience in fighting terrorism…(cont)
— Chris Christie (@ChrisChristie) May 23, 2015
This dysfunction is what we have come to expect from Washington, DC, but usually it does not have such dangerous and severe consequences.
— Chris Christie (@ChrisChristie) May 23, 2015
Scott Walker, asked Wednesday whether he would “stand with Rand” were he in the Senate, replied that “we need to have the capacity to collect information.”
“I understand the senator’s concern,” he said, but claimed it should be “specific to this president, this administration.”
“I don’t share the same sentiment as Senator Paul.”
On Friday, Paul’s campaign replied to Walker’s comment, telling BuzzFeed, “It’s a shame to see that the Washington machine has co-opted Gov. Walker on this crucial issue.”
“We can protect Americans WITHOUT violating our freedoms and privacy. Clearly Gov. Walker is wiling [sic] to trample the Constitution and American’s right to privacy in support of a program that law enforcement says has not resulted in a single terrorist arrest or thwarted terror plot and our courts have ruled to be illegal.”
