Christie calls spying fears ‘baloney’

In a speech outlining his foreign policy priorities on Monday, likely GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie will take direct aim at critics of U.S. spying powers.

“When it comes to fighting terrorism, our government is not the enemy,” the New Jersey governor will say in Portsmouth, N.H., according to remarks released ahead of time.

{mosads}“Too often, the loudest voices in the debate about how to keep our country safe are driven by some purist, theoretical vision of how we should manage our intelligence efforts,” he adds.

“Let me be clear: all these fears are baloney.”

In his remarks, Christie accuses opponents of government surveillance of making intelligence agencies seem like “the bad guys, straight out of the ‘Bourne Identity’ or a Hollywood thriller.”

“And they want you to think that if we weakened our capabilities, the rest of the world would love us more,” he adds.

The remarks come as the Senate is about to embark on a five-day sprint to either reform the National Security Agency or renew its powers unchanged. The battle lines in the fight cut across party lines, which has increased the chances that three portions of the Patriot Act expire at the end of the month, taking some NSA powers with them. 

Christie — a former U.S. attorney who prosecuted terrorism cases in the years following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — argues against restraining U.S. spying powers.

“We shouldn’t listen to people like Edward Snowden, a criminal who hurt our country and now enjoys the hospitality of [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin — while sending us messages about the dangers of authoritarian government,” he said in the prepared remarks. Snowden, who leaked documents about the NSA, has sought refuge in Russia while on the run from espionage charges in the U.S. 

“And, frankly, we don’t need advice from Hollywood, the guys who made our intelligence agencies the villains in practically every movie from the last 25 years,” says Christie. 

The speech finds the New Jersey governor firmly in the hawkish wing of the GOP, which has become somewhat crowded with White House aspirants.

Last week. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) delivered a closely watched address criticizing President Obama’s foreign policy machine and directly taking on Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, Obama’s former secretary of State.