The next battle in the war between Cruz and Rubio of the NSA has begun tonight, as Cruz demands Rubio retract comments about terror attacks:
From Politico:
In a statement set to go out widely later Friday, the Cruz campaign accuses Rubio of desperation and demands that he “formally correct” recent comments he made about the USA Freedom Act, a measure supported by Cruz but opposed by Rubio that puts restrictions on how the NSA collects data.
At issue is how Rubio described the USA Freedom Act. Earlier Friday, Rubio said on CBS “This Morning” that the act, which passed earlier this year with bipartisan support, “took away the right to collect metadata, which means that we can now not access the phone records of individuals that we either suspect of being involved in terrorism or who carry out an attack to see who they were coordinating or talking to.”
Chad Sweet, Cruz’s campaign chairman and a former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, fired back in a statement. “This particular assertion – that America couldn’t target those who have carried out attacks – is beyond the pale and Rubio should correct the record immediately, instead of attempting to instill a false fear among Americans,” he said.
“Our campaign is calling on him to formally correct these inaccurate statements and to start telling the truth about America’s intelligence capabilities,” Sweet continued.
A Rubio spokesman noted that Cruz has recently lauded the fact that telephone metadata more broadly is no longer collected in bulk.
Marco Rubio made a loose connection between the San Bernardino shooting and the NSA on CBS This Morning. Here’s what he said: