Rubio Campaign Press Release - Why Was Ted Cruz Pushing for Weakening Our Anti-Terrorism Programs Just Earlier This Year?

As Marco has repeatedly stated, America is at war with radical Islam and faces new threats to our security in the wake of the brutal attacks in Paris. Our intelligence agencies are on the front lines of that war.

So we should be making sure they have the tools they need, not weakening our intelligence programs, right?

Marco Rubio thinks so.

That's why he opposed efforts by President Obama and Harry Reid in the last two years to weaken the critical intelligence programs that are used to monitor and catch terrorism suspects and disrupt attacks before they happen.

But some Republican senators — including Ted Cruz — led the effort in Congress to weaken the intelligence community. 

They pushed a bill that put bureaucratic roadblocks in intelligence officers' way, handed over national security decisions to the courts, and more.

Despite the efforts of Marco and other national security conservatives, the bill passed Congress and was signed into law by President Obama earlier this year.

At a forum last night, Marco highlighted the consequences of weakening our defenses at such a dangerous time.

"We are vulnerable," Marco said. "What happened in Paris could happen in a major American city at any moment, at any time. There [are], in fact, elements that seek to strike us here in the homeland and have the capability to do so. It's just a question of whether they can carry it out."

And it's not just that the threats are significant and growing — they're also exactly the kind of threats we need intelligence tools to confront.  These programs have been weakened by Cruz's efforts.

"The danger is multi-faceted," Marco said. "It is external operators who could be sent here, or have been sent here, for a specific purpose. And it's also lone actors. This is the other facet of the external operations of ISIS. Lone actors that gain inspiration and tactical advice online, from publications put out by ISIS about how to conduct an attack to inflict maximum casualty. . . . That's why our intelligence programs are so important.

"We have weakened the U.S. intelligence gathering capability through a combination of disclosures by a traitor, Edward Snowden, and also through the weakening in our own laws of important programs that now are being phased out, and as a result, will cost us the ability to gather actionable intelligence against elements operating in our territory," Marco concluded.

The Cruz bill was supported by President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder, and liberal Democrats like Harry Reid. The American Civil Liberties Union praised it too, calling it the "the most important surveillance reform bill since 1978." It was called "a resounding victory for Edward Snowden."

Meanwhile, conservative national security experts slammed it: Former NSA director Michael Hayden and former attorney general Michael Mukasey said the Cruz bill was "exquisitely crafted to hobble the gathering of electronic intelligence."

Now that we've been reminded of the threat ISIS and other radical Islamists represent, why would anyone still be proud of their efforts to dismantle the programs that keep Americans safe?