Senator Obama begs to differ.

Via WaPo:

White House spokesman Josh Earnest defended the administration’s program of collecting the telephone records of tens of millions of Verizon customers in the U.S., calling it a “critical tool.”

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday, Earnest said that while he could not disclose classified information, the top-secret court order issued in April — first reported Wednesday night by the Guardian newspaper — helped alert U.S. officials to possible terrorist activities.

Earnest read a statement at the top of his part of the gaggle, about the “robust legal regime” that reviews the use of the government powers under the Patriot Act “to ensure that they comply with the Constitution.”

He declined to say whether the particular order in question today has been in place for seven years, as lawmakers have said. But Earnest did say that the “authorities that are referenced by this reported order are something that have been in place for a number of years now.”