CNN’s Jake Tapper Rips Obama for Not Working Harder to Renew the PATRIOT Act

SCIUTTO: “Listen, it hasn't been very sharp since the beginning, because remember going back to when Edward Snowden first revealed the phone metadata program, which really led to this whole controversy. You know, the message has changed from the White House. Early on, you remember this talking point? Fifty terror plots thwarted by this program, that number, talking point disappeared, because actually it wasn't demonstrated by facts. It was watered down to one guy who sent $8,500 to Somalia, it was specifically netted in the metadata program and this is one of the criticisms that has led to the opposition here is that there are other tools that the NSA and the U.S. intelligence can use to nab these guys other than full metadata. That's the most controversial. There are other ones that are less controversial. The president referred to them, for instance, this roving cell phone power. Because, you know, one of the troubles is, you know, these guys are smart enough to switch their cell phone numbers and constantly change them because they know that the NSA is listening and that's something less controversial. Metadata more controversial, the president mentions that they have a fix in there. They are basically move the metadata from the government's hands, keeping the phone companies hands, and the government would have to use a warrant to get in there. And the trouble is, though it, that message, kind of mixed in all this because some of these could be pretty easy selling points particularly when you and I are talking every day about the threat of ISIS, the plots here in the U.S.”