Arizona Sen. John McCain said Sunday the threat of terrorism in the United States “is getting worse,” validating the government’s controversial monitoring of all telephone calls placed in the country.
When CNN’s “State of the Union” host Candy Crowley asked McCain whether he had a problem with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act program, he answered, “No, not really.”
“I think we have to understand this issue in the context of what also has been going on,” McCain said, referring to Americans’ aroused suspicions in the wake of the Internal Revenue Service scandal involving tea-party organizations and the administration’s admitted targeting of journalists, including Fox News reporter James Rosen.
“I believe that the FISA Court system is an appropriate way of reviewing some of these policies. If this was Sept. 12, 2001, we might not be having the argument that we are having today.”
The fact that Americans did not know their phone calls are being logged, and their durations being noted, is part of the “balancing act” that needs to be in place to counter terrorism, the veteran Republican said.
“I don’t think they know a lot of things that the government is doing,” he said. “The threat is growing, not diminishing, in my view.”
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