President Joe Biden in the Oval Office. (AP/Evan Vucci)
Hamadeh called the timing of his surveillance "interesting" because "during the time period that I was challenging the results of my election in 2022 when I was running for attorney general, where that race was decided by 280 votes out of 2.5 million."
Hamadeh continued, "You know, this is a very legitimate challenge. This is something that both sides of the aisle have done routinely. So you don't know if that was a factor. And I would assume so, because at the time it was such a hostile environment with President Biden when he was in power. I mean, my God, they were calling MAGA fascists. They were calling us threats to democracy constantly."
BIDEN FAMILY INSIDER EXPOSES CULTURE OF CONCEALMENT IN FORMER ADMINISTRATION
GOP Rep. Abe Hamadeh says he was surveilled by the Biden administration's Quiet Skies program (Fox News Digital/Getty)
"I'm glad to see that the Senate, Senator Rand Paul got to the bottom of it and also that Department of Homeland Security has now effectively terminated the Quiet Skies program as well," Hamadeh told Fox News Digital.
"Also, it's odd that there's only three Republican members of Congress that were targeted. I mean, I'm assuming, there's Democrats who have a lot of interesting travel here that I serve with as well. I'm sure that there are things that would flag them. So it makes you question what the Biden administration, who they were focusing on, who they were targeting specifically. I mean look at Tulsi Gabbard. I mean what? What a complete 180 for now to have her be running the intelligence agencies as the director of national intelligence. And it goes to show you what we were fighting."
In a press release earlier this week, Paul commended Noem for ending the program but said the work is "not done."
"We must make sure that this program does not come back under another name. Every official who directed or approved surveillance of Americans for protected speech must be removed from office. Full transparency must become the rule rather than requiring a year of investigation," Paul said. "The result will be a process that respects the Constitution, ends real life shadow bans against Americans and gives all of us the assurance that our government is focused on protecting us, not on chasing political ghosts."
Fox News Digital reached out to Biden's office for comment.
Fox News Digital's Cameron Arcand contributed to this report
Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gop-rising-star-exposes-how-biden-admin-was-targeting-him-through-controversial-surveillance-program