Face in the News: Lawmakers discuss ISIS and internet encryption; Republican Presidential Candidate Sen. Rand Paul talks about government surveillance; The latest CBS News' Battleground Tracker results

WASHINGTON (CBS News) - This week on "Face the Nation," we continued our discussion on terrorism and the latest on the tragic terrorist acts in France and Mali. The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and the House Homeland Security Committee Chairman, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) spoke about their criticisms of the Obama administration's efforts to destroy ISIS and the challenges that the intelligence community faces in tracking potential terrorist operatives and preventing attacks. We also spoke with Republican Presidential Candidate Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) about the limits of government surveillance in the wake of those attacks. Brett McGurk, the Special Presidential Envoy for Global Counter-ISIL Coalition, joined us in the studio to offer his counter on the President's strategy. Finally, on this week's broadcast we released the newest poll results of the CBS News' Battleground Tracker showing business man Donald Trump widening his lead.

At the top of Sunday's broadcast were the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and the House Homeland Security Committee Chairman, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX). Feinstein appeared skeptical of the Obama administration's current strategy in combatting ISIS.

"I don't think the approach is sufficient to the job." The California Senator said. She also noted that ISIL has become a "quasi-state" saying, "ISIL has 30,000 fighters. It's got a civil infrastructure. It's got funding. It's spreading in other countries. And it's a big, big problem."

During the program Feinstein and McCaul both told host, John Dickerson that internet encryption remains a strategic tool used by terrorist organizations to plan attacks because of the government's inability to read terrorist's communications.

"I think the biggest threat today is the idea that terrorists can communicate in dark space, dark platforms, and we can't see what they're saying." McCaul explained, and noted that it is the most "rational explanation" he has of how the Paris attacks were planned and executed.

The two members of congress made news in USA Today, Politico, Bloomberg, Reuters, CNS News, The Hill, The LA Times, The Huffington Post, and The Washington Post.

Also appearing on Sunday's broadcast was Republican Presidential Candidate Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. Paul expressed his concern that politicians are using the terrorist attacks in Paris to push to increase the levels of government surveillance in the United States. "I think when you have a fearful time or an angry time, that people are coached into giving up their liberty." The junior senator from Kentucky said, adding that "you can keep giving up liberty, keep giving up liberty, but in the end I don't think we'll be safer, we may have lost who we are as a people in the process."

Paul also commented on the Republican front runner, Donald Trump's, recent remarks calling for the monitoring of American mosques and possibly a database tracking Muslims living in the United States. Paul told our host, John Dickerson, that his comments were "really disqualifying," and that it would, "require some sort of religious czar that I think isn't consistent with our freedom."

Our conversation with Sen. Rand Paul was covered by The Washington Examiner, Mediaite, The Lexington Herald Leader, and The Hill.

The Special Presidential Envoy for Global Counter-ISIL Coalition, Brett McGurk, brushed off many of the criticisms of President Obama's Counter-ISIL strategy saying that over the past year the administration has done some things to "set the conditions for us to accelerate our efforts."

McGurk added that the administration will soon begin applying pressures on many different fronts to begin to "suffocate" the terrorist organization saying, "as we suffocate and strangle them in the core, we're also going to work to strangle their international networks."

Brett McGurk made news in The Guardian, The Observer, Telegraph, The Hill and Reuters.

Finally on this week's broadcast, we released the newest 2016 CBS News' Battleground Tracker results. Businessman Donald Trump, who tied with neurologist, Dr. Ben Carson in last month's poll, is now leading the Republican Party at 30%. The most notable move, however, came from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) who vaulted into second place and is just 9% behind Trump.

The latest CBS News' Battleground Tracker results were talked about by The Hill, Bloomberg and The Ledger- Gazette.

You can also watch John Dickerson and CBS News Elections Director Anthony Salvanto discuss the latest results here.