Would you have voted for the Gang of 8’s immigration bill?

I wouldn’t have voted for it. I think that there were too many good amendments, for example, that were not accepted, such as those offered by Sen. Cruz, that would have provided much more insurance in terms of border security. I am not comfortable with leaving so much discretion in the hands of the secretary for Homeland Security – to decide whether to carry out those provisions of the bill. And I think the bill as it stands now doesn’t deal with the most important issue we’ve got to address first, which is to secure the border.

What do you make of the Obama administration’s domestic surveillance programs?

I think you’ve got to distinguish between a number of things here. I think that there is legitimate concern about the extent to which the Obama administration has shown a disregard for American citizens’ privacy — if you look at what they’ve done with respect to going after enemies with the IRS, if you look at what they’ve done with respect to releasing information, addresses, GPS coordinates of farmers and ranchers through their EPA. I think they’ve shown a real willingness to cross lines that previous administrations of both parties haven’t been willing to cross. I think people are justly concerned. And they’re rightly concerned about what’s going to happen when the IRS has control of our medical information. I think those are all legitimate concerns.

I also think at the same time we’ve got to have a program in place that allows us to track phone calls that are being made from dirty numbers, from terrorist organizations, into the United States. I think you’ve got to be able to do both things.