Rep. Pete King: Americans Should Compare Dem, GOP FBI Memos

Rep. Pete King said Thursday he hopes President Donald Trump will be able to release a Democratic memo on the FBI's surveillance practices, as he wants people to be able to compare it with the GOP memo released last weekend.

"I've read the memo and read it several times," the New York Republican, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "As I read it I saw nothing in there that rebutted any of the main points or any of the points we made."

The document does refer to some sources, and if the FBI wants to take those items out, King said he is fine with that.

"I think any initial security issues or any sources and methods issues, they can be redacted without changing the substance of the Democratic memo," said King. "If the FBI determines that no redactions are necessary, that's fine with me. I want their memo out there."

He thinks once Americans can see the Democratic memo, he believes that they'll see how important the Republican memo was and why it may need to be released.

Rep Trey Gowdy, R-N.C., has said he believes the Democratic memo contains much that will need redacted intentionally, so the president will have to redact it to the point that it will feel as if he was blocking something.

However, King said there were many things he saw that he thought did involve national security or sources and members, and he wants redactions to be suggested by the FBI, so Trump won't be blamed for them.

"I think again as much as can be gotten out should be gotten out there and make it part of the debate, so people think we aren't trying to hide anything," said King. "We voted unanimously to release the Democratic memo. Every Democrat voted against having the Republican memo come out."

Also on Thursday, King said he's seen the released texts sent between two FBI agents, including one saying then-President Barack Obama wanted to be kept abreast of what was happening, but he doesn't want to "jump the gun the way Democrats have done on us."

"What we've seen so far the totality of these text messages shows how biased these two were," said King.