It was quite the circus last night on Fox News. Two debates involving 17 GOP candidates. There were quite a few highlights, but let’s discuss the Governor Christie/Senator Rand Paul sparring match. FoxNews Megyn Kelly asked:

Do you really believe you can assign blame to Senator Paul just for opposing the people’s bulk collection of phone records in the event of a terrorist attack?” Kelly asked.

Governor Christie had his response ready, and that’s when the fight started.

Rand Paul’s hair lit on fire!  ‘more records from terrorists but less records from Americans.’ Ok great. You know what? Yes, there are serious Constitutional ramifications to collecting data from Americans. However, given the major issues of national security we face shouldn’t we be cautious about letting the gates stay open and never do anything to protect ourselves and our land?

Here’s the thing. If we don’t have a surveillance program then we are truly hamstrung. You know why? Lets look at the pain and horror inflicted upon a church, parishioners, pastor, their families and community in Charleston.

Lets talk about Chattanooga. Five servicemen were killed by Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez. Their lives were snuffed out and yet the authorities refuse to call him what he was, a terrorist. 

Given those recent events, can someone PLEASE explain to me how NOT having a program in place to track those who are bent on inflicting harm on our country is beneficial?  Especially since our current Administration and President is pushing hard for our country to make a deal with one of the largest sponsors of terror in the world.

As a matter of fact, there were very few mentions of the Iran Deal during either debate. Which, in light of two major news items late yesterday afternoon, was a missed opportunity for Fox News. First out of the gate we find out yet again that Iran doesn’t give a flip about the so-called Iran Deal. Why? A major Iranian general just snuck into Russia to play footsie with them.

Iran’s terrorist commander visited Russia, the world’s second-largest arms exporter, just days after Iran struck a nuclear deal that will lift an arms embargo on the country, Fox News reported Thursday.

Fox reported that Quds Force commander Qassem Suleimani violated an international travel ban to visit Russia, whose $6 billion arms trade benefits regimes like China, Myanmar, and the separatist forces in Eastern Ukraine.

That right there should be a major warning flag to all of Congress as they review what information there is of the deal, and determine if they will or won’t support it. One Senator has decided this deal cannot be supported, and his decision is a doozy.

As the first GOP debate started rolling, Senator Schumer announced his decision concerning the Iran deal:

New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, an influential Jewish Democrat who’s poised to assume leadership of his party in the Senate, will oppose President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, he announced on Thursday evening.

“After deep study, careful thought and considerable soul-searching, I have decided I must oppose the agreement and will vote yes on a motion of disapproval,” Schumer wrote in a 1,600-word post on the website Medium that posted during the first Republican presidential debate.

“I will vote to disapprove the agreement, not because I believe war is a viable or desirable option, nor to challenge the path of diplomacy,” he added later. “It is because I believe Iran will not change, and under this agreement it will be able to achieve its dual goals of eliminating sanctions while ultimately retaining its nuclear and non-nuclear power.”

Senator Schumer wrote a thoughtful, articulate, 1600 word post on Medium about his opposition to this deal. One line stands out in particular:

To me, the very real risk that Iran will not moderate and will, instead, use the agreement to pursue its nefarious goals is too great.

Indeed, Iran will not change, and if this deal goes through they will have a lot more money to use to sponsor terror and even attacks on our homeland. So, is getting rid of the NSA phone surveillance the answer as Senator Rand Paul thinks it should be? I don’t know. We found out after the 5 servicemen were killed that the Chattanooga terrorist was radicalized and spent months “vacationing” in Jordan and Yemen.

Would the NSA program helped in this instance? Good question. Is scrapping that program altogether the answer? I honestly don’t know. Our government is being cyber hacked on a continual basis. We have weakened the support of our allies and emboldened our enemies because of the reckless arrogance of the current President. Do we need to be tracking terrorists around the world and in this country and shutting them down? Yes we must. Can Christie or Paul be the ones who can strengthen us here at home and abroad and hold our enemies at bay? That is yet to be determined.