House Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Peter King (R-N.Y.) is giving President Obama “a pass” for the memo circulated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) warning of the risks posed by “right-wing extremists.”
“I’m giving President Obama a pass on this for now,” King said Thursday morning on MSNBC, adding that he’s asked Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) to investigate the origins of the memo.
King suggested that the authors of the memo might come from the “liberal” and “biased” wing of the Democratic Party, and encouraged the administration to reject such figures.
Still, King largely made nice with the administration, encouraging Republicans to avoid demonizing the president. The cooperative talk could signal a precursor to a rumored Senate run in blue state New York by King.
“We’ve had now 17 years of this stuff just trying to tear down the president and demonizing,” King said, praising Obama’s decisions on Iraq and Afghanistan. “There was no reason to demonize Bill Clinton, no reason to demonize George Bush. And we should not be demonizing Barack Obama.”
Watch a video of the interview below:
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