It is important for President Barack Obama to install confidence in the American people over the threats the Islamic State poses to the United States, Rep. Peter King said Monday, but the president is downplaying the threat and showing "the worst example of leadership in a wartime situation."
"You don't do it by saying this is not a real threat," the New York Republican, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee and chairman of the Sub-Committee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, told
Fox News' "America's Newsroom" host Martha MacCallum.
"This is a real threat. This is an enemy that wants to kill us and it's a deadly, diabolical enemy."
It is okay to tell Americans to live their lives normally, King said, but at the same time, President Obama should realize "we're in a battle for civilization. We could be attacked at any minute. I would say there is a 100 percent chance the enemy wants to attack us. They will if they get a chance."
The idea, King said, is to keep ISIS on defense.
"If he doesn't start doing more overseas to put them on defense, if he keeps undermining law enforcement in this country, it makes an attack more likely," said King of Obama.
"We have to stand with the police, stand with the FBI, be tough overseas and here at home."
However, he said he does agree with experts like House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul and Homeland Security Director Jeh Johnson when they say there are no "credible threats," but on the other hand, "We don't know what we don't know. Considering the world we live in, I would say right now, we can't be hiding or running. We have spotted threats in the past."
And while Brussels has been locked down for three days while police search for Paris attack suspect Salah Abdeslam, King said the United States does not have a "hostile population" that exists in certain European countries, but this country remains the "number one target."
"The president gives us a false sense of confidence," said King. "We have to be alert 24/7 and use increased surveillance. We can't be apologetic, with liberal happy talk that we'll win because we're the good guys and they're the bad guys. No, we'll win when we kill them and stop them from attacking us."
King said the United States also has to be concerned that ISIS is appealing to "people on the fringes, borderline psychos, if you will," who will launch small-scale attacks, such as one a year ago in which New York police officers were attacked with a hatchet.
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.
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