News that the U.S. spied on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and some members of Congress is "probably the biggest scandal of this president's administration," former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Pete Hoekstra told
Newsmax TV on Wednesday.
"This information went from NSA, went to the White House — and the White House then used it to formulate and to push its political agenda on Capitol Hill with this inside information," Hoekstra, a Republican who represented Michigan from 1993 to 2011, told "Newsmax Prime" host Joe Pags.
"Clearly, they should have the intelligence committees do oversight hearings," he continued. "They should demand an independent investigation through the inspector general of these different agencies.
"They need to find out exactly what happened," he said.
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Hoekstra described the relationship between Netanyahu and President Barack Obama as "strange."
"The prime minister in Israel doesn't agree with this president's foreign policies," he told Pags. "He believes that the foreign policy of this administration jeopardizes the very existence of the state of Israel.
"He's doing everything that he can to protect his nation state," Hoekstra added. "That's his assignment as the head of state in Israel."
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