Since announcing his presidential campaign last week, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has made a point of attacking Sen. Rand Paul on surveillance and national security issues.
On Morning Joe, Christie hit Paul for supposedly making the country weaker and more vulnerable thanks to his political efforts to end the Patriot Act and surveillance practices by the national intelligence agencies, calling it a “terrible thing.”
“For him to raise money off of it, is disgraceful,” Christie added, referring to Paul’s fundraising efforts during the political fight.
“What he’s done, we’re going to look back on this, listen this morning, we’re going to look back on this and he should be in front of hearings, in front of Congress if there is another attack, not the director of the F.B.I. or the director of the C.I.A,” Christie said.
Christie’s attacks on Paul have become central focus of his campaign out of the starting gate, focusing on his record on national security.
On Fox News Sunday, Christie accused Paul of “politicizing America’s national security.”
“He’s wrong and what he’s done has made America weaker and more vulnerable,” Christie said. “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.”
Prior to Christie’s announcement for president, the Kentucky Senator and the New Jersey governor have gone back and forth on different issues.
During a political squabble with Christie in 2013 over government spending, Paul called Christie the “king of bacon.”
“Governor Christie and others have been part of this gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme all this money,” Paul said.
As the fight continued, Paul suggested that the two meet for a “beer summit” to make nice, but Christie declined, asserting that he was too busy running for re-election in New Jersey to travel to Washington D.C.
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