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(NJ Advance Media & AP file photos)

TRENTON — Republican presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. Rand Paul on Tuesday said Gov. Chris Christie's recent verbal jab at him "wasn't very nice."

Paul, who's no stranger to engaging in public spats with New Jersey's governor, responded during a TV interview over their differing opinions about the Patriot Act. Christie, without calling them out by name, recently criticized federal lawmakers who oppose the Patriot Act, a group that includes Paul. Christie said such opposition is "misguided."

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Christie made the comment during a speech at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference on Friday. It mirrored a similar statement Christie released on Saturday when the governor slammed "misguided ideologues" with "no real world experience in fighting terrorism" for "putting their beliefs above the safety and security of our citizens" after the U.S. Senate failed to extend certain provisions of the Patriot Act.

In an interview on FOX & Friends, Paul was asked to respond.

"That just wasn't very nice, I'll put it that way," he said, before articulating his opposition to the government's intelligence gathering methods.

Christie recently offered a fiery defense of the National Security Agency and the nation's intelligence-collection efforts during a stop in the early presidential voting state of New Hampshire this month. Christie assailed former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked thousands of documents to journalists in 2013 that showed the NSA had been collecting millions of Americans' phone records, and said it's "ridiculous" to think the government is spying on law-abiding citizens.

"They want you to think that there's a government spook listening in every time you pick up the phone or Skype with your grandkids. They want you to think of our intelligence community as the bad guys, straight out of the Bourne Identity or a Hollywood thriller. And they want you to think that if we weakened our capabilities, the rest of the world would love us more," Christie said during a speech on national security in Manchester on May 18.



"Let me be clear," he said. "All these fears are exaggerated and ridiculous."

Paul, meanwhile, has been a longtime critic of the Patriot Act and blocked attempts by federal lawmakers to enact a short-term extension of it with the NSA's bulk data collection program Christie defended intact.



Christie's leadership political action committee had this to say in response:



"The Senate's failure to extend the Patriot Act is a failure of the U.S. government to perform its most important function - protecting its citizens from harm. This is the unfortunate result of misguided ideologues who have no real world experience in fighting terrorism putting their uninformed beliefs above the safety and security of our citizens. This dysfunction is what we have come to expect from Washington, DC, but usually it does not have such dangerous and severe consequences."



Paul's tempered response to Christie's speech and subsequent statement comes after the two have had their share of public spats.



In 2013, Christie accused Paul of using his name and identity within the Republican Party "to get attention in the national media."

The comment was borne out of remarks Christie made at a Republican summit in July 2013 when New Jersey's governor, invoking memories of Sept. 11, blasted Libertarian-leaning lawmakers -- including Republicans like Paul -- who openly opposed the National Security Administration's controversial surveillance program.



"I just want us to be really cautious, because this strain of libertarianism that's going through both parties right now and making big headlines, I think, is a very dangerous thought," Christie said while sitting on a panel of Republican governors at an event in Colorado.



He continued: "President Obama has done nothing to change the policies of the Bush administration in the war on terrorism, and I mean practically nothing, and you know why? Because they work."



Paul took to Twitter to respond.



"Christie worries about the dangers of freedom," said a message on Paul's Twitter feed. "I worry about the danger of losing that freedom. Spying without warrants is unconstitutional."



A few days later, Christie accused Paul of "pork barrel spending" while Paul struck back with his own jab at Christie, calling the governor "the king of bacon" when it comes to government spending.

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Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.