--- title: Republican Debate: Rubio and Cruz Clash Over Phone Records description: A debate over collecting phone records canonical: https://time.com/4150881/rubio-cruz-phone-records/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-16T03:10:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:40:25.147Z article:section: Politics og:title: Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz Go Head-to-Head Over Surveillance Law og:description: A debate over collecting phone records og:url: https://time.com/4150881/rubio-cruz-phone-records/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt03d8106775f67202/698875908e06013037463c6d/republican-debate-gop-presidential-010.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3392 og:image:height: 1908 og:image:alt: Marco Rubio og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz Go Head-to-Head Over Surveillance Law twitter:description: A debate over collecting phone records twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt03d8106775f67202/698875908e06013037463c6d/republican-debate-gop-presidential-010.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz Go Head-to-Head Over Surveillance Law > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=cf25a79d-a264-47c4-9830-d1ff69aff89c&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: CNN Republican Debate: Rubio and Cruz Spar Over Phone Tapping [Watch (HLS stream): CNN Republican Debate: Rubio and Cruz Spar Over Phone Tapping](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ha8hTskQ.m3u8) (1:07)  _Published 2015-12-16. Nine Republican presidential candidates faced off for the fifth Republican debate on CNN_ by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Dec 16, 2015 3:10 AM UTC by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Dec 16, 2015 3:10 AM UTC Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz clashed over government surveillance efforts at [Tuesday’s Republican debate in Las Vegas.](http://time.com/4149585/republican-debate-donald-trump-ted-cruz-jeb-bush-cnn/) The exchange came after a back-and-forth between the two camps when a nonprofit political group linked to Rubio [attacked](http://time.com/4126356/marco-rubio-ted-cruz-foreign-policy-ad/) Cruz for his vote in favor of the USA Freedom Act. Cruz began when asked about his vote in favor of a law which ended the bulk collection of telephone metadata, arguing that the law gave the government more tools with which to fight terrorism. “In particular what it did is the prior program only covered a relatively narrow slice of phone calls. When you had a terrorist you could only search a relatively narrow slice of numbers, primarily land lines,” Cruz said. “The USA Freedom Act expands that so now we have cell phones, now we have Internet phones, now we have phones that terrorists are likely to use and the focus of law enforcement is on targeting the bad guys.” Rubio responded on Tuesday with a sense of urgency at the threat posed by terrorist organizations like ISIS. “This bill did however take away a valuable tool that allowed the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies to quickly and rapidly access phone records and match them up with other phone records to see who terrorists had been calling,” Rubio said. “I promise you the next time there is 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 us.” ## Transcript This is not just the most capable. It is the most sophisticated terror threat we have ever faced. We are now at a time where we need more tools, not less tools. And that tool we lost, the metadata program, was a valuable tool that we no longer have at our disposal. Senator Cruz? Well, I would note that Marco knows what he's saying isn't true. Mark Levin write a column last week that says that the attack Ads and super packets is running, they're saying the same thing. That they are knowingly false and they are in fact a Alinsky like attacks like Barack Obama. And the reason is simple, what he knows Is that the old program covered 20 to 30 % of phone numbers to search for terrorists. The new program covers nearly 100 %. That gives us greater ability to stop acts of terrorist and he knows that that's the case. So let me just be very clear. There is nothing that we are allowed to do under this bill that we could not do before. This bill did, however, take away a valuable tool that allowed the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies to quickly and rapidly access phone records and match them with other phone records to see who terrorists have been calling. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4150881/rubio-cruz-phone-records/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4150881/rubio-cruz-phone-records/"},"headline":"Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz Go Head-to-Head Over Surveillance Law","datePublished":"2015-12-16T03:10:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-05T08:40:25.147Z","description":"A debate over collecting phone records","url":"https://time.com/4150881/rubio-cruz-phone-records/","keywords":["Debates","2016 Election","Sen. 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