On Wednesday, not one but two Republican likely presidential prospects attacked Sen. Rand Paul for his stances on terrorism and National Security Agency surveillance. First, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie put Paul and Sen. Mike Lee on blast for opposing the Patriot Act, and accused them of "siding with" Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor.
"He's a criminal and he's hiding in Russia, and he's lecturing to us about the evils of authoritarian government while he lives under the protective umbrella of Vladimir Putin?" Christie said in a Fox News interview. "That's who Mike Lee and Rand Paul are siding with? With Edward Snowden? Hey, come on."
Later in the day, the office of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal sent out a press release saying Paul is "unsuited" to be commander in chief, after Paul attacked Republican hawks on MSNBC's Morning Joe Wednesday morning. "ISIS exists and grew stronger because of the hawks in our party, who gave arms indiscriminately, and most of those arms were snatched up by ISIS," Paul said.
"We have men and women in the military who are in the field trying to fight ISIS right now, and Senator Paul is taking the weakest, most liberal Democrat position," Jindal responded in the statement. "It's one thing for Senator Paul to take an outlandish position as a senator at Washington cocktail parties, but being Commander in Chief is an entirely different job. We should all be clear that evil and Radical Islam are at fault for the rise of ISIS, and people like President Obama and Hillary Clinton exacerbate it."
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