The three Republican senators running for president debated the bulk collection of American phone records, in light of the recent terrorist attack in San Bernardino.
Sens. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul stand apart from the rest of the field and support limiting direct government surveillance. They led the charge in the Senate last June to pass the USA Freedom Act, which prohibited the large-scale collection of data records.
During the presidential debate, Sen. Marco Rubio contended that the metadata collection program was “a valuable tool that we no longer have at our disposal.”
Paul: Rubio more allied with liberal than conservative policy. #GOPdebate https://t.co/Q3fo896Wnr https://t.co/JUGkmjhUV3
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) December 16, 2015
Things got particularly heated when Paul attacked Rubio on his failed immigration reform proposal, saying in order to defend the country we must first defend the border.
“Marco can’t have it both ways,” Paul said. “Marco has more of an allegiance to Chuck Schumer and the liberals than he does to conservative policy.”
Paul recently introduced an amendment that would have halted immigration from “high risk” countries — but only 10 senators voted in favor of the legislation.
Here’s what Governor Chris Christie had to say about the data debate:
Christie: “This is what it’s like to be on the floor of the U.S. Senate.” #GOPdebate https://t.co/xRsP634FFg https://t.co/ck5zmIlABu
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) December 16, 2015
