Chris Christie: If there's another terrorist attack Rand Paul should be held responsible
- We’re going to look back on this, and he should be in front of hearings in front of Congress if there’s another attack,' Christie said
- Paul is aggressively opposed to provisions of the Patriot Act that give the feds access to Americans' phone records
- The Republican politicians are competing against each other to become the GOP's presidential nominee
Should terrorists strike American soil again, Republican Senator Rand Paul should be held responsible, Chris Christie says.
'We’re going to look back on this, and he should be in front of hearings in front of Congress if there’s another attack. Not the director of the FBI or the CIA,' Christie, a Republican White House hopeful, said today on Morning Joe.
Paul is also a contender for the White House, and he is aggressively opposed to provisions of the Patriot Act that give the feds access to Americans' phone records.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie lit into fellow Republican White House hopeful Rand Paul during an appearance on Morning Joe today
He says it's a violation of the Fourth Amendment for the government to review bulk telephone data for ties to terrorists and federal law enforcement officials are exaggerating the necessity of the their broad spying powers to the prevention of attacks.
The Kentuckian gave a 10-hour speech in May that was not quite a filibuster but kept the Senate from proceeding to other business - and to its holiday break - ahead of the deadline to renew the spying powers in question.
That provision of the Patriot Act expired, temporarily, before lawmakers rallied around a bill that remanded the data back to phone companies and required the National Security Agency to obtain a warrant from a secret court before asking to view it.
Paul would have preferred to see the measure expire altogether while Christie, a former U.S. attorney who began his tenure immediately after 9/11, strongly supported it as originally written.
While Congress was debating how to move forward legislatively, attacked Paul and other lawmakers in support of revisions and said the future of the law was being decided by 'people who have no experience dealing with what I've dealt with.'
'I'm the only person in this national conversation at the moment who has used the Patriot Act, signed off on it, and convicted terrorists because of it,' he said during remarks at a conservative gathering, speaking vaguely about his presidential run as he was not a formal candidate at that point.
Christie said 'these same folks who are criticizing this now will be the same people who will stand on Capitol Hill if there is another attack of America and interrogate a CIA director, an FBI director, and ask them why they didn't connect the dots and not realize the hypocrisy of their actions.'
'The first job of the President of the United States is to protect the homeland, and that's what we need to do,' he told attendees of the Southern Republican Leadership Conference.
Should terrorists strike American soil again, Paul should be held responsible, Christie said. Paul is aggressively opposed to provisions of the Patriot Act that give the feds access to Americans' phone records. The Kentuckian gave a 10-hour speech in May opposing the spying measures
He said this morning that Paul's the one who should have to testify before Congress if attack occurs and accused him of distastefully fundraising off of his speech against the Patriot Act.
Paul has made 'this country weaker and more vulnerable,' he said, according to Politico, 'and for him to raise money off of it is disgraceful. It’s disgraceful.'
Christie levied a similar charge at his primary election opponent yesterday during an appearance on Fox News Sunday, declaring, 'He’s wrong and what he’s done is make America weaker and more vulnerable and he’s done it and then cut his speeches and put them on the Internet to raise money off of them.'
'He’s politicizing America’s national security,' Christie, the governor of New Jersey proclaimed.
Christie's ranking in the GOP field as of the last national poll left him tied for ninth place, earning just three percent of Republican voters support to Paul's seven percent. Paul was tied for fourth in that poll, conducted by CNN and ORC International at the end of last month.
Since then, Christie officially joined the 2016 race. His numbers may have spiked as a result of his announcement speech, as presidential candidates' ratings often do after they make their campaigns official.
But he has a long way to go before he reaches the front of the pack, where ex-Florida Governor Jeb Bush was last perched atop the GOP flag pole at 19 percent.
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