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McCaskill said in a hearing today that there is an investigation into the contractor that conducted a background check into whistleblower Edward Snowden. Tapper asked her why any American should feel comfortable with people getting poorly vetted having access to their personal data. McCaskill said that was the
To his credit, Tapper brought up The Guardian‘s latest report on the NSA being able to access information without warrants, which basically contradicts the flat-out denials by President Obama and members of his administration. Tapper asked McCaskill if that lack of oversight troubles her as well. McCaskill hesitated, admitting that making the program too transparent (which is different from oversight, but whatever) means that “some of it becomes ineffective in getting the bad guys.” She allowed that maybe there should be a little more oversight, and then proceeded to undermine the Guardian report by going after their credibility as a news source.
“I think The Guardian has an agenda. I respect the fact that The Guardian is putting this information out there and that it’s been leaked, I get that’s a role of journalism. But, at the same time there’s been an awful lot of distortions around the facts of this information that’s come to light and an awful lot of context that’s been missing.”
Tapper brought up McCaskill’s dismissive line of argument that the government is collecting less data
Watch the full segment below, courtesy of CNN:
h/t POLITICO
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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac