Former Rep. Pete Hoekstra believes President Barack Obama's vow on Friday to stop collecting Americans' phone records and spying on friendly foreign leaders was undetailed and vague.
"On this, the devil's in the details and the president didn't give us any details today at all," the Michigan Republican told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
"[It] leads me to believe … we may extend certain privacy rights and constitutional protections to foreigners. That's a huge problem…."
"Our focus was always about, No. 1, protecting Americans, doing everything we could within the legal framework … I don't know where this is going to go, but I'm nervous about what [Attorney General] Eric Holder may do."
Hoekstra says Obama is being inconsistent on national security because while the National Security Agency continues its surveillance on Americans, new regulations ban the use of interrogation techniques on terrorists.
"There's a host of inconsistencies here … It would be one thing if there was a consistent philosophy here and you and I and others could debate the merits of that philosophy," he said.
"But, with this administration, they are all over the board. With the Bush administration, you could agree or disagree with its philosophy, but you knew that the Bush administration was going to take every legal stop possible to keep us safe.
"Here, sometimes with the Obama administration, we see them providing protections to Americans, other times we see them providing protections … to foreigners."
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