The pollster said Christie has other things to worry about as he campaigns for the White House.
Advertisement
“I can’t get the picture out of my mind… when he just cuddled right up to him“, a woman said.
Paul, who has based much of his campaign on limiting digital surveillance, said he wanted to “collect more records from terrorists, but less records from innocent Americans”.
Christie blasted Paul for taking an academic tone on the issue, contrasting that to his time in the field pursuing terrorists.
Paul then shot back, accusing Christie of fundamentally misunderstanding the Bill of Rights.
Mr. Christie decided to go after Rand Paul, attacking him for his opposition to national antiterrorism surveillance policies.
“Yes I do. And I’ll tell you why”, Christie said.
Christie defended his support of the Patriot Act and the National Security Agency’s controversial practice of collecting phone records, reflecting on his time as U.S. Attorney in New Jersey and declaring that he “will make no apologies ever for protecting the lives and safety of the American people“. Here’s the problem Governor. “And that’s what I fought to end”.
Christie otherwise spent the night at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland defending his home-state record and working on reviving his once-promising presidential chances.
The fight started after Christie asserted that Paul was wrong to raise civil liberties concerns about NSA spying. But he kept his balance, |and came back strong: “Senator Paul, you know, the hugs that I remember are the hugs that I gave to the families who lost their people on September 11th … and those had nothing to do with politics”.
Paul then struck a low blow. “I’m the only one who’s put out a plan on entitlement reform”. A Rutgers-Eagleton poll released hours before the debate showed only 30 percent of New Jersey voters have a favorable opinion of Christie, which pollsters say is a new low for the second-term governor.
Advertisement
Paul greeted that comment with an eye roll.
