A key Senate Republican is looking into whether Sen. Ted CruzRafael (Ted) Edward CruzO'Rourke rips Trump's border wall in video: 'A symbol of division' O'Rourke's chances against Trump are ‘overstated,’ says progressive columnist Bloomberg ready to spend at least 0M if he runs for White House in 2020 MORE (R-Texas) discussed classified information during Tuesday night's Republican presidential debate.

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"I'm having my staff look at the transcripts of the debate right now," Sen. Richard BurrRichard Mauze BurrThe Mueller investigation: What to watch for in 2019 Senators' last-minute demands may delay funding bill On The Money: Fed raises rates, defying Trump | GOP moving stopgap to prevent shutdown | Conservatives blast Trump over deal | Consumer bureau halts name change | Treasury hits Russians with new sanctions MORE (R-N.C.), the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, told reporters. "Any time you deal with numbers ... the question is, 'Is that classified or not?' Or is there an open source reference to it?"

Cruz raised eyebrows during an exchange with Sen. Marco RubioMarco Antonio RubioNauert faces questions about qualifications at UN The Memo: Trump puts isolationism at center stage Trump's military moves accelerate GOP search for next McCain MORE (R-Fla.) over the National Security Agency's surveillance program, when he said that the old program covered "20 or 30 percent of phone numbers" while the new program covers roughly 100 percent.

Becca Glover Watkins, Burr's communications director, suggested on social media that Cruz might have said something he shouldn't have, though she didn't specifically reference his comments. 

Burr added on Wednesday that while he hadn't heard Cruz's comments, "the question had been raised, therefore I asked them to look at it."
 
He suggested that his staff would need to search through media reports to see if the numbers had been reported independently before.
 
The North Carolina senator didn't specify what — if any — consequences Cruz could face if his staff determines that the Texas Republican did discuss classified information.
 
"I would be a lot more worried if he was in fact a member of the committee, but to my understanding this subject matter was not one where any members outside of the committee had been briefed on it," he said. 
 
Cruz's campaign suggested that the Texas Republican didn't discuss anything that hasn't been widely reported, including in a 2014 Washington Post article. 
 
The Post reported that the NSA "is collecting less than 30 percent of all Americans' call records." 
 
This story was last updated at 3:36 p.m.
Tags Richard Burr Marco Rubio Ted Cruz