Freshmen senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are sparring about their foreign policy beliefs. Cruz criticized Rubio by saying his beliefs are similar to Hillary Clinton's and that his support for invading Libya led to the attacks in Benghazi.
"Senator Rubio emphatically supported Hillary Clinton in toppling [Muammar] Qaddafi in Libya. I think that made no sense," said Cruz, according to Bloomberg Politics. "Qaddafi was a bad man, he had a horrible human rights record. And yet... he had become a significant ally in fighting radical Islamic terrorism."
Cruz also criticized an ad from a Super PAC supporting Rubio. The advertisement attacked Cruz for supporting the USA Freedom Act, which limited the government's collection of phone data. "I imagine Senator Rubio's PAC is trying to respond to the criticism that he has received that he is not willing to protect the Fourth Amendment privacy rights of law-abiding citizens,'' said Cruz, according to the New York Times.
"Senator Cruz voted to gut U.S. intelligence programs and make Americans less safe," responded Rubio's campaign spokesman, according to Business Insider. "Nobody has shown a better understanding of the threats we face in the 21st century than Marco."
Rubio himself responded strongly to Cruz's criticism. He maintains that Cruz voting for the USA Freedom Act made America less safe.
"I stand strongly on behalf of the ability of this government to gather intelligence on our adversaries and our enemies," said Cruz, according to Business Insider. "Those keep us safer. And there are Republicans, including Sen. Cruz, that have voted to weaken those programs. That's just part of the record. It's nothing personal.''
"If, God forbid, there were a terrorist attack in America tomorrow, we would not be able to gather the phone records of individuals that might be part of that plot in a time-effective way," added Rubio, according to Business Insider.
