Last updated on: 3/10/2016 2:09:09 PM PST
Should the National Security Agency (NSA) Continue to Collect Phone and Email Metadata on US Citizens?
Pro (Yes)
Pro
"I support legislation which allows the NSA to hold the bulk metadata. For oversight, I propose that a court, which is available any time on any day, is created to issue individual rulings on when this metadata can be accessed."
Source: Ken McIntyre, "Should the NSA 'Spying' Program Be Illegal? What 2016 Contenders Say," dailysignal.com, May 20, 2015
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Con (No)
Con
"Congress should move ahead now with the USA Freedom Act [that would restrict NSA mass data collection]—a good step forward in ongoing efforts to protect our security & civil liberties."
Source: Hillary Clinton, Twitter post, twitter.com/HillaryClinton, May 7, 2015
Con
"[T]here are increasing calls for government regulation and intrusion into the Internet. From some politicians' suggestions of a government 'kill switch' to recently-passed so-called Cyber Security legislation, the government is determined to insert itself into our freedom to communicate, conduct business and seek information via the Web.
The government is even demanding that it be granted special 'back doors' into encrypted, private information held and moved by Internet providers. The excuse is security — a laughable concept from a government that has proven time after time to be incapable of protecting even the most basic data.
Gary Johnson has consistently opposed these attempts at government interference with the Internet, and as President, would return the government to the side of freedom and innovation — not regulation."
Source: Gary Johnson 2016, "Government Spending," garyjohnson2016.com (accessed Apr. 20, 2016)
Con
"[Edward Snowden] has done the American people an incredible service by exposing the violations of the Constitution that have been perpetrated on us - which was taken very seriously around the world, where he has been vindicated. The kind of spying going on has not been protecting us - not one instance of a terrorist plot was found by these abuses - none, by mass spying. They initially claimed dozens of cases but it was found that there were no none, in a Congressional investigation. Snowden should be treated as a hero - efforts to harass him and prosecute him should be declared over and done with. Charges should not be brought against him, and he should return with hero status--he could improve our national security if he were working for us."
Source: On The Issues, "Jill Stein on Homeland Security," ontheissues.org, July 6, 2015
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FORMER CANDIDATES
(Candidates who have withdrawn or who no longer meet our criteria appear below in black and white and in alphabetical order.)
Pro (Yes)
Pro
"There's no evidence, not a shred of evidence, that the metadata program has violated anybody's civil liberties…
The first duty of our national government is to protect the homeland. And this has been an effective tool, along with many others, and the Patriot Act ought to be reauthorized, as is."
Source: Kyle Balluck, "Bush: NSA Metadata Program 'Not a Violation of Civil Liberties,'" thehill.com, May 31, 2015
Pro
"I'm probably the only person in these discussions who actually used it. And I know how important the Patriot Act is to help to prevent terrorism, to intercede before a terrorist act occurs. And I'm not someone who is going to back off at all from the Patriot Act. It's important and should be extended as is."
Source: Ken McIntyre, "Should the NSA 'Spying' Program Be Illegal? What 2016 Contenders Say," dailysignal.com, May 20, 2015
Pro
"I think there's a middle ground. I do think we have to gather intelligence. As a governor here, from time to time, I'll get a briefing on threats. So I know that intelligence is important. But I also think civil liberties are important.
So I do think they ought to continue the [data-gathering] program. But all that data probably ought to put -- be put in some sort of an organization, maybe some sort of quasi-government organization. And we ought to extend the power of the FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance] court. That's the court that says if you're going to go and use this kind of surveillance, it has to be approved by somebody.
And you know, when you talk about domestic surveillance, I think we've got to extend the power of that court.
So to me, there has to be a review.
Secondly, I don't like the government holding onto this data. This could be a case for Congress to actually shine and strike the proper balance between surveillance and the need for civil liberties. And I think that's the direction they ought to go."
Source: ABC News, "This Week Transcript: Ohio Gov. John Kasich," abcnewsgo.com, May 24, 2015
Pro
"There is nothing that we are allowed to do under this bill [USA Freedom Act] that we could not do before. This bill did, however, take away a valuable tool that allowed the National Security Agency and other law — and other intelligence agencies to quickly and rapidly access phone records and match them up with other phone records to see who terrorists have been calling. Because I promise you, the next time there is attack on — an attack on this country, the first thing people are going to want to know is, why didn’t we know about it and why didn’t we stop it? And the answer better not be because we didn’t have access to records or information that would have allowed us to identify these killers before they attacked."
Source: Charlotte Alter, "Transcript: Read the Full Text of the Dec. 15 Republican Debate in Las Vegas," time.com, Dec. 16, 2015
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Con (No)
Con
"The court's [US Court of Appeals] decision [disallowing the NSA's bulk collection of data] confirms the mass collection of data is an intrusion of the Fourth Amendment rights of all Americans. There is no reason to monitor the activities of everyday Americans… There are currently ways for our government to monitor the activities of suspicious individuals. You can get a court order very quickly when necessary. The security and privacy of our citizenry is paramount—one of the central [tenets] of our Constitution. But we can protect our national security without invading the rights of law-abiding citizens."
Source: Ken McIntyre, "Should the NSA 'Spying' Program Be Illegal? What 2016 Contenders Say," dailysignal.com, May 20, 2015
Con
“We need to see the details, but it's an excellent development that the President says he intends to end the government's bulk collection of phone metadata for millions of law-abiding Americans. The federal government must respect the constitutional rights of every American. Our intelligence community is to be praised when it protects our security within the bounds of our Constitution, but I remain deeply concerned that even with our massive surveillance apparatus, we too often fail to connect the dots—and so fail to prevent—terrorist attacks from Fort Hood to Benghazi to Boston. We would do better to focus our efforts squarely on those who are most likely to attack us and less on the activities of law-abiding Americans. We must always be vigilant to protect our nation’s security, and we should not limit those efforts simply because we have greater intelligence capabilities than other countries."
Source: Ted Cruz, "Cruz: Focus Our Efforts Squarely on Those Who Are Most Likely to Attack Us and Less on Law-Abiding Americans," cruz.senate.gov, Jan. 17, 2014
Con
"Today's federal appeals court ruling [disallowing the NSA's bulk collection of data] is good news in that a court agrees with what so many Americans already knew, that this program has gone too far.
There's no doubt that Intelligence gathering is vital to the security of all Americans but there should be a balance between that protection and our privacy. However, Obama's warrantless, NSA spying program is more than just illegal, it's an unconstitutional, criminal assault on our freedoms as Americans. As President, I will repeal this program and protect the privacy and civil liberties of all Americans."
Source: Mike Huckabee, Facebook post, www.facebook.com/mikehuckabee, May 7, 2015
Con
"I am deeply concerned about recent revelations that the National Security Agency (NSA) and other intelligence agencies are collecting enormous amounts of information about phone calls that Americans make, emails that we send, and websites that we visit. In my view these actions are clearly unconstitutional…
Indeed, we must be vigilant and aggressive in protecting the American people from the very real danger of terrorist attacks. I believe, however, that we can do that effectively without undermining the constitutional rights that make us a free country."
Source: Bernie Sanders, Letter to Director of National Security Agency (NSA) General Keith Alexander, sanders.senate.gov, Jan. 3, 2014
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Not Clearly Pro or Con
"You know, listening to this conversation, let me just say, we have a lot of argument about laws but none of it solves the problem. Let's examine what happened, why did we miss the Tsarnaev brothers, why did we miss the San Bernardino couple? It wasn't because we had stopped collected metadata it was because, I think, as someone who comes from the technology world, we were using the wrong algorithms.
They [Silicon Valley tech companies] do not need to be forced [to provide data to the intelligence agencies]. They need to be asked to bring the best and brightest, the most recent technology to the table. I was asked as a CEO [of Hewlett Packard]. I complied happily."
Source: Team Fix, "5th Republican Debate Transcript, Annotated: Who Said What and What It Meant," washingtonpost.com, Dec. 15, 2015
None Found
Withdrew on Dec. 21, 2015; no additional research done as of that date to determine candidate's position on this question.
None Found
Withdrew on Feb. 1, 2016; no additional research done as of that date to determine candidate’s position on this question.
None Found
Withdrew on Feb. 3, 2016; no additional research done as of that date to determine candidate's position on this question.
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