WASHINGTON, D.C. – In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Angus S. King, Jr. (I-ME) this morning joined MSNBC’s Morning Joe to discuss recent reports of National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programs:

On the program, Senator King, a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, called for a more open debate on the issue: “I think there are so many layers to this issue, but the first is the one you touched upon, which is: we ought to have an open debate. People ought to at least have a general idea of what’s going on and argue about it and whether it’s appropriate and whether it’s necessary to protect the country or whether it goes too far…There have been debates over the years on these issues. I just don’t know if they have gone deeply enough. I wasn’t there…but I think it should have happened more openly so that people understood what the implications are.”

Senator King expressed his concern with the government’s reported retention of phone records and suggested that private companies hold onto the information, allowing the government to access it as necessary: “It makes me nervous that all of those phone records are in the possession of the National Security [Agency]. Why not leave them at the phone companies and if you have to get what amounts to a warrant…go back and check it then.”

Senator King, who noted during the interview that the Constitution protects specifically against unreasonable searches and seizures, emphasized that a balance between security and personal liberties must be struck in an age when global terrorism remains a continual threat: “The most basic responsibility of any government is security, but the very next issue is how do you control the government that is going to protect the security?...It’s all about checks and balances, and I think it’s all about minimizing the potential for abuse in the Executive…As was just said, this is complicated stuff and the technology is changing so fast. The Executive will always justify any intrusion on behalf of security…Clearly there’ve got to be limits.”

You can watch the interview by clicking here.

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