New Jersey Governor and prospective Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie defended the Patriot Act and criticized Senator and GOP presidential candidate Rand Paul’s ISIS remarks as not “backed up by any type of fact” in an interview set to air on Friday’s “Hugh Hewitt Show.”
Christie addressed Paul’s comments regarding ISIS, arguing, “The fact is this, to try to say that ISIS, which is based — their philosophy is based upon radical Islamic thought was somehow created by folks here in the United States is just, to me, a statement that isn’t backed up by any type of fact.”
Christie then said that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) should “stare down the critics of the Patriot Act.” He further criticized Paul, and said “what we’re doing is collecting the appropriate type of data that we need to collect to try to see who in our country is talking to folks who have terrorist ties around the world. And I don’t understand and will not understand why he does not believe that this can be done while also having appropriate oversight and balancing whatever civil liberties concerns that we have. But first and foremost, we’ve got to protect the homeland. And I think that folks like — those who are arguing against it have a severe case of amnesia of what this country felt like and what we experienced in the days after September 11th.”
He concluded, that Paul has both “amnesia” and an ideological “fear of the power of the state.” And “I’m sure that there are folks up there, not just Senator Paul, but others, who are arguing against the extension of the Patriot Act who if, God forbid, we had another attack on the homeland, would be the first folks at Congressional hearings, calling up the FBI Director and the CIA Director under oath, and demanding to know why they didn’t connect the dots. And they wouldn’t understand the difficulty that they caused in helping to make that happen.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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