Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., joined several Republican presidential hopefuls Wednesday in blasting Apple for refusing to help federal agents access encrypted data on the cell phone of one of the San Bernardino shooters.

Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, urged the company to assist in accessing data from the phone of Syed Farook and threatened “to put forward a law which would essentially require that,” if the company resisted.

“There is a phone encrypted that could yield additional information,” she said while appearing on CNN’s “The Lead.” “And I believe that as a government we have every responsibility and duty to see that Apple provides that information.”

Apple’s tough stance on encryption risks placing it in the cross hairs of leaders from both parties and making the company an easy target for presidential hopefuls.

“The populist tendencies among both Democrats and Republicans are clearly very strong,” Steve Webber a political science professor at the UC Berkeley School of Information said in an email. “At the moment they haven’t taken aim at the tech firms, but when it’s an issue of public safety, I bet they will.”

Donald Trump wasted little time Wednesday lashing out at Apple for not fully cooperating in a terrorist investigation.,

“To think that Apple won’t allow us to get into (his) cell phone? Who do they think they are?” he said during an appearance on “Fox & Friends.”

Apple has worked with FBI investigators on the case, but has refused to help the investigators access encrypted information on the phone of Farook, who along with his wife, killed 14 people in San Bernardino last year. On Tuesday, a federal judge ordered Apple to comply with the request; the company has five days to respond.

In an open letter Tuesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook warned that the order is tantamount to requiring Apple to build the government a backdoor to the iPhone’s operating system. Such a move, Cook wrote, would compromise users’ privacy and make them more vulnerable to cybercrimes.

“The government is asking Apple to hack our own users and undermine decades of security advancements that protect our customers — including tens of millions of American citizens — from sophisticated hackers and cybercriminals,” Cook wrote. “The same engineers who built strong encryption into the iPhone to protect our users, would, ironically, be ordered to weaken protections and make our users less safe.”

The Obama Administration wants Apple’s help to recover the phone’s passcode, so that it can access encrypted information without triggering the device’s auto-erase functions. The phone data, authorities have said, could help investigators learn more about the Farook’s movements on the day of the attack and provide evidence incriminating his friend Enrique Marquez, who has been charged with providing material support for terrorists.

The dispute could rile up law-and-order Republicans as the party’s presidential candidates face off in more than a dozen nominating contests over the next several weeks.

Appearing on the same Fox show, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani attacked libertarian-leaning Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, along with former candidate Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, for “the ridiculous hysteria they created about privacy.”

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, who has criticized Cruz for backing legislation that repealed some of the government’s surveillance power under the Patriot Act, told supporters in South Carolina Wednesday that he hoped Apple will decide to comply with the court order.

“Ultimately, I think being a good corporate citizen is important,” he said.

Democratic candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vermont, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not address Apple’s encryption fight Wednesday. Both have so far resisted taking a strong position on an issue that could cost them support in donor-rich Silicon Valley or make them look weak on national security.

Bill Whalen, a Hoover Institution research fellow and longtime GOP consultant, didn’t expect encryption to have much traction come November in part because both parties’ nominees will be hard-pressed to defend Apple’s position.

“I think you’ll see both candidates saying the same thing: That it’s in Apple’s best interest to work with the government on this one,” he said.

Wire reports contributed to this story. Contact Matthew Artz at 510-208-6435.