NORAH O'DONNELL (CO-HOST): Senator, you know that surveillance program was in effect in New York. It has been disbanded, as you mentioned. You also know it didn't lead to any leads, any intelligence tips. They said it didn't work. It didn't work.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Well, it is true that the [Mayor Bill] de Blasio political henchmen say that. And it's also true that the NYPD said it provided valuable intelligence. And I'll tell you, as I travel the city of New York and as I travel the country, police officers over and over again stop me, and they say, “Thank you for standing up and having my back.” You know, there was a moment here in New York --
O'DONNELL: Let me ask you this. This raises a lot of civil liberty concerns. Let me ask you. How many Muslims are in America?
CRUZ: I don't know the number off the top of my head.
O'DONNELL: So you're saying that law enforcement should surveil a number of Muslims, and you don't even know how many Muslims are in America? There are three million Muslims in America. Law enforcement is overwhelmed.
CRUZ: So you're saying we can't defeat radical Islamic terrorism?
O'DONNELL: We have a chief of police, one of the most respected chiefs of police who was here earlier, who said there are no Muslim neighborhoods. It's not like Europe, it doesn't exist that way. It's impractical what you're suggesting. Also, it doesn't suggest it would lead to anything. It's more of a political point that you're making.
CRUZ: Norah, actually you brought up Europe and it's a good example. If you look at the attack in Brussels, it's a direct result of the failed immigration policies in Europe that have allowed vast numbers of radical Islamic terrorists to come to Europe and they have been ghetto-ized in neighborhoods that have become isolated, that have become separate, and they have become incubators for radical Islamic terrorism.
O'DONNELL: That's not a similar problem that we have here in the United States.
CRUZ: Of course, it is. There are communities in America --
O'DONNELL: Name one community, one city where we have a large group of radicalized Muslims.
CRUZ: You have communities, for example, in Minnesota, you have communities in Michigan with heavy concentration, and you have incidences of radical imams preaching jihadism, preaching Islamism.
GAYLE KING (CO-HOST): But how about this point of view, there are so many that say that your comments are decidedly anti-Muslim and that you're playing right into the hands of ISIS. That you're giving them ammunition to come after us, to really take action against us, that you're just teeing it up for people to come after us.
