Former Rep. Pete King, who was on the House Intelligence Committee during President Donald Trump's first term in office, said Sunday on Newsmax that he hopes revelations made by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard about actions allegedly undertaken by the Obama administration to undermine the election will "hold people accountable."
"That was a scandal from beginning to end," the New York Republican said on "Wake Up America Weekend," adding that "what the Democrats were doing" against Trump was "the worst disgrace ever."
Gabbard, backing up her claims with a highly redacted, declassified report posted online, alleged that shortly after Trump won the 2016 election, then-President Barack Obama and his national security team laid the groundwork for what eventually became the "Russiagate" scandal.
Trump continues to call the claims against him the "Russia hoax."
King said that committee members were "bound and restricted in what we could say," but during hearings, "they kept talking about bombshells."
"Adam Schiff and others were going on CNN, talking about all this damaging evidence," said King. "We heard there was never any from beginning to end. This was a coup attempt to remove a lawfully elected president from office, or to hamper him so much that he couldn't carry out his duties. It was an absolute disgrace."
And now that the documentation has been released, King said he hopes "all this comes out and we can hold people accountable for this. It's such an outrage."
Former Rep. Jack Kingston, also on Sunday's program, further discussed warnings from the U.S. Army Special Operations Command that retired senior military personnel who had served in Iraq and Syria and who now live in Florida could face a terrorist threat.
"It's a serious threat," said the Georgia Republican. "I can tell you Peter and I have both met with special ops guys in the field. These are specialist guys, but they're not like the Rambo kind of guy that you see on TV. They're great communications experts. They're language experts, they're code crackers. And so you could be living next door to somebody who was former special ops in Florida and not even know it necessarily."
But they could be vulnerable while "living amongst us and having good, normal middle-class lives at this point," Kingston added.
King said that he's been concerned for a while about the potential of an internal terror threat.
"You have groups like Hezbollah [who] are well-positioned in the United States," he said.
"Certainly I know that here in New York and Florida will be prime targets. Al Qaida and ISIS, and Hezbollah have not changed their worldview at all. They're still here. They can strike, and we have to constantly keep them down."
GET TODAY NEWSMAX+:
NEWSMAX is the fastest-growing cable news channel in America with more than 30 million people watching!
Reuters Institute reports NEWSMAX is one of the top news brands in the U.S.
You need to watch NEWSMAX today.
Get it with great shows from Rob Schmitt, Greta Van Susteren, Greg Kelly, Carl Higbie, Rob Finnerty – and many more!
Find the NEWSMAX channel on your cable system – Go Here Now
BEST OFFER:
Sign up for NEWSMAX+ and get NEWSMAX, our streaming channel NEWSMAX2 and our military channel World at War.
Find hundreds of shows, movies and specials.
Even get Jon Voight's special series and President Trump's comedy programs and much more!
Watch NEWSMAX+ on your smartphone or home TV app.
Watch NEWSMAX anytime, anywhere!
Start your FREE trial now: NewsmaxPlus.com
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.