Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, blasted the refusal of intelligence chiefs to answer certain questions during a Senate Intelligence Committee meeting, calling it "ridiculous."
King's comments came during an interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
Dan Coats, director of national intelligence and Adm. Michael Rogers, director of the National Security Agency refused to answers senators' questions on Wednesday about whether President Donald Trump had asked them to intervene in the FBI investigation into Russia election meddling, The New York Times reported.
The two only would say they had never felt "pressured" by the White House to do anything improper.
But King said their responses were unacceptable.
"It was really ridiculous," said King, a member of the Senate panel. "When my dad said, 'why are you out so late?' I didn't say, 'well I think it's inappropriate to answer that question.'"
And he added: "No, it was really disappointing. And it was clear that both Adm. Rogers and Director Coats had sort of — I don't know whether they had talked together or consulted — but they both essentially had the same answer and it just didn't fly."
King insisted both men could have easily answered.
"You know, my job — I'm sitting there, representing the people of Maine saying here are the questions we want answered," he said.
"They could have easily said yes or no or given some description. It wasn't classified. They didn't invoke executive privilege. Beyond that, there's no excuse for not answering the question."