By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz, Ben Carson and Donald Trump defended the FBI’s battle with Apple over encrypted data on a cellphone belonging to the San Bernardino attackers.
Their positions were made clear during a televised town hall Wednesday night.
Another Republican presidential candidate, Marco Rubio, said the issue was complicated, the Los Angeles Times reports.
“There has to be a way to deal with this issue,” Rubio said. “I don’t have a magic solution for it today … but I do know this: It will take a partnership between the technology industry and the government to solve this.”
Cruz acknowledged Apple’s “serious argument” over protecting privacy of iPhone users but said Apple ultimately is defying a searching warrant.
Carson attacked Apple’s mistrust of the government.
The remaining Republican candidates will appear at a televised town hall Thursday night, when they are expected to lay out their position on Apple’s fight with the FBI.
In a separate town hall meeting Wednesday, Trump called Apple “disgraceful” for rejecting a court order.
“We should force them to do it. We should do whatever we have to do,” Trump said during an MSNBC town hall in Charleston, S.C.
