Major Legal Blow Delivered To NSA's Domestic Spying Program; Republican Versus Republican On Capitol Hill
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Next, a major blow to the NSA spying program. Does today's ruling prove Edward Snowden's case?</s>JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: It is just an absolutely scathing rejection of the NSA program that the government has defended.</s>TAPPER: Plus, was Rick Santorum right?</s>RICK SANTORUM, FORMER U.S. SENATOR: Gender doesn't matter anymore. Why does number matter?</s>TAPPER: Does a new legal case show gay marriage opened the door to legalizing polygamy? And Google's robot army. And it won't be a small one.</s>TAPPER: Good evening. I'm Jake Tapper in for Erin Burnett. We're following a developing story out of Madison, Wisconsin right now. A Delta airlines flight 385 has slipped off the runway at Dane County regional airport. You are looking at the phone we just received a photo from our affiliate, WISC. You can see how snowy it is in Madison tonight. The incident occurred as the plane was taxiing. There are, thankfully, no reported injuries at this time. And the passengers are being bused to the terminal for their safety. We will continue to follow the story and bring you an update as soon as we have it. Our other top story tonight, a major blow to the NSA's spying. A judge has ruled that the spy agency's both collection of millions of Americans phone and e-mail records is likely unconstitutional. We are going to talk about this with the senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin. The actual specific criticism is that the data mining program revealed by NSA leaker Edward Snowden who actually issued this response, saying, quote, "today, a secret program authorized by a secret court, was, when it exposed to the light of day found to violate Americans' rights. It is the first of many." But a justice department spokesman say quote "we believe the program is constitutional as previous judges have found." Still, they say the ruling is being studied. CNN's senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin is here. as I said Jeff, this ruling is limited. It only applies to this specific case, but are there long-term ramifications.</s>JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, that remains to be seen. But it's certainly nothing but bad news for the NSA today. The ruling, as you say, only applies to the two individuals who brought the case. And the NSA can no longer collect data on them. Plus, the judge himself, Richard Leon, who is, by the way, a George W. Bush appointee and a well-known conservative on the bench, he says I'm going to stay, I'm going to put my order on hold while the government appeals. So, the government program is still operating as we speak, but now there is a real political and legal problem for the Obama administration what to do now.</s>TAPPER: And as you heard earlier in the day when you and I were discussing this with Ben Wisener of the ACLU, civil libertarians are arguing this is what happens when an open court discusses these things as opposed to a private FISA court. Do you think that this means, the NSA, will ultimately have to make any changes or not?</s>TOOBIN: It certainly seems possible. Remember, tomorrow President Obama is meeting with a group of tech executives from Google, from Yahoo, from Facebook, all the big companies who are not happy with this program either. They want changes made. The combination of this court ruling, the corporate unhappiness, some of our allies unhappiness, it certainly seems like there might be some changes in this program that would respond to those criticisms, but it is also true that national Security is a very powerful interest in this country. And there are going to be a lot of resistance to changes. So, the president and no one but the president is going to have to resolve these competing pressures.</s>TAPPER: Jeffrey Toobin, thank you so much. Of course, the president will discuss some of these issues tomorrow at the White House with some top tech executives who are visiting. Republican versus Republican on Capitol Hill. The bipartisan budget bill that easily passed through the House last week is now running into opposition in the Senate. So far, there are not yet on the record. The 50 votes needed to pass this bill, not to mention the 60 votes needed to begin voting. Still, the deal is expected to pass, but it's already it caused a big split within the Republican party. Last week House speaker John Boehner chided conservatives groups who opposed the bill. And on Sunday, deal maker, Congressman Paul Ryan, weighed in on the internal GOP spam.</s>REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE BUDGET COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: I think John has got his Irish up. He was frustrated that these groups came out in opposition to our budget agreement before we reached a budget agreement. I was frustrated too, but I think these are very important elements of our conservative family. I would prefer to keep those discussions within the family.</s>TAPPER: Matt Kibbe is the president and CEO of FreedomWorks, one of the conservative groups that opposes this budget deal. William Kristol is editor of the "Weekly Standard," Paul Begala is a Democratic strategist and CNN political commentator. Bill, I'll start with you. Is speaker Boehner right? Should these fights be kept within the family, not publicly? And should conservative groups wait to see the deal before they criticize?</s>WILLIAM KRISTOL, EDITOR, THE WEEKLY STANDARD: Look. In a free country, people speak out, and conservatives don't agree on everything. And that they agree on this deal. But I think one argument for the deal is to let's have this little spat now. It's going to pass the Senate, I think, tomorrow or Wednesday. Let's get it over with so conservatives can unite and go after the thing that's really ruining America, which is Obamacare.</s>TAPPER: Paul, I will let you talk about that in one second. But Matt, I want to get to you. I mean, very clearly, John Boehner has expressed very serious frustration, two days in a row. It wasn't just getting his Irish up just once. It was the entire Ireland. He's talking about your group, he is talking about other groups. What do you think of that?</s>MATT KIBBE, PRESIDENT, CEO, FREEDOMWORKS: Well, I think it's a little disingenuous to go after us for expressing opinions about a deal that was on a very fast track. The challenge has always been in these last minute budget deals to understand what's in there before members vote, before</s>TAPPER: Paul, there are also progressive Democrats, Liberal Democrats, who have refused to say how they're going to vote on this and who don't want to because it doesn't include extending an informant insurance benefits. They don't like other provisions in it. How many Democrats do you think are going to vote against this?</s>PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: I think -- against it? Very, very few, almost none. I think almost all the Democrats will be for it. And here's why. Because it's not a great deal, but it's a deal. And it's a good deal. And frankly, it's a good deal for both sides. Bill wants to go fight about Obamacare. And frankly, I think Democrats are already fight back on that. That's fine. It finally allows us to get back to regular order, right? So that we won't have government shutdowns. It does enshrine, actually, the Democrats don't like it. They are trying to many of those freely, clumsy and stupid cuts that were in the sequester which was never intended to be public policy. It was supposed to be a threat, a doomsday device that sadly came into being. So, they want to get out from under some of that and on national security as well which is getting some Republican votes for it. My question, I guess is, what deal would you take? What deal would the right take?</s>TAPPER: That's a decent question. I want to play some of I asked Paul Ryan about the deal last week. And here's what he had to say.</s>RYAN: We're basically passing an agreement that we can pass that we can agree to. There are a lot of things not in the agreement that people wanted in the agreement. And that's just the way, you know, it compromise and common ground works.</s>TAPPER: Democrats control the Senate, Democrats control the White House. Something needs to pass to fund the government. This is Paul Ryan's argument. And it's a lot easier to say no and be a purity Republican than actually accomplished something. How do you respond to that argument?</s>KIBBE: Well, I think the compromised position was the sequester that we were promised in 2011 for $2 trillion increases of debt. And the president supported it, and the Democrats supported it and the Republicans supported it. What they have done is unwind that last promise for another long-term promise to do something in the tenth year. The tenth year never comes. So I think our compromised position was let's settle for this sequester. Nobody likes it. If nobody like it is in Washington, it must be doing something good.</s>TAPPER: Bill, I know you hated the sequester, so go ahead.</s>KRISTOL: Well, I just think it cuts defense way disproportionately. The Obama White House proposed the sequester. It is a little off and deserves Republicans fall in love with it and they proposed it with widely disproportion of cause in the defense. But I understand --</s>TAPPER: It was never meant to actually happen. It was to be a threat.</s>KRISTOL: Right. Fine. But that make it is to me a little - that's why I'm not one of those Republicans who fell in love with it and decided it was the best thing to do. I don't, you know, that are those -- that is their sincere relief and I don't far with people voted against it. It got more than two-thirds of the vote on House Republicans. A lot of those conservative Republicans who did on cutting spending and perhaps that spending is soundly for the last two years decided that a little relief in the short term, trade off -- minor entitlement reform and relief for defense. And above all, getting this off the table so we don't have Republicans fighting Republicans for the next year so we can focus on --</s>TAPPER: Yes, say it.</s>KRISTOL: Obamacare.</s>TAPPER: This time, I will let Paul weigh in. Obamacare. You actually think by November 2014, Obamacare is going to be a winner for the democrat party? Nancy Pelosi told me that last week.</s>BEGALA: If they fight. You can't win a fight you're not engaged OR AS John McCain like to say, a fight not engage, a fight not enjoy. I think Democrats will enjoy this because the computer and the rollout have been a disaster. It has been awful. And I would never defend that. Here's the problem with the Republican position. They don't really have an alternative, so they want to repeal it. And so, Democrats will say, you will hear this million times, Republicans want to take us back to the day when is you can be denied coverage for having a pre-existing conditions, or we can be discriminated against for being a woman. Or you can, of God forbid, your child get sick or insurance can be cut off because of some lifetime limit or annual limit. They will go right back to the parade of horrible that existed before Obamacare and Americans don't like to give up their rights.</s>TAPPER: A lot of head shaking here. And we will have all of you back here to discuss Obamacare. Thank you so much. Paul Begala, Bill Kristol and Matt Kibbe, I appreciate it very much. Still to come. A dramatic change to marriage laws in this country. Why a judge says it's now OK to live like a polygamist in Utah. Plus, the latest from the Colorado shooting, the parents of the shooter speak out for the first time. And a FOX News anchor explains her comment about Santa and Jesus, but is her explanation go far enough?