Like I said, a great speech but the Repugs are dumbasses, proof within hours …
Rep. Peter King on Obama’s speech on terror: “The tone was wrong” plus [transript]
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Lethal, yet less capable al Qaeda affiliates, threats to diplomatic facilities and businesses abroad, home-grown extremists, this is the future of terrorism. We have to take these threats seriously and do all that we can to confront them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: A major speech in the war on terror today from President Obama. In a sweeping address, the president defended the use of drones and also vowed to fight violent extremists that target and threaten America. All this comes a day after the horrific terror attack in London, where two men nearly beheaded a British soldier.
With me now is Congressman Peter King, member of the Homeland Security Committee. Congressman, thank you for joining me. What is your reaction to the president’s speech today?
REP. PETER KING (R), NEW YORK: Piers, basically I agree with a lot of what the president’s done in recent years, but the tone of today’s speech I just thought was wrong. For instance, he’s really declaring almost the end of the war against terrorism long before it’s over. In many ways, al Qaeda is more dangerous now than it was prior to September 11th.
For him to be stepping back and saying he’s going to be somehow reducing the level of drone attacks, that he’s going to be releasing more prisoners from Guantanamo, when already we have released the — basically anyone who could be released has been. What’s held back now are the worst of the worst. And 30 percent of those that we’ve released up until now have come back against us.
So I just think the tone of it was wrong. Also, Piers, maybe I’m saying this from a patriotic instinct or whatever. When I hear the president of the United States talk about torture and his own men and women who really were sacrificing, doing what had to be done to protect us after 9/11, and to casually use a word like torture, that would be like someone saying drone attacks are murder. In either event, it’s wrong. It’s the wrong terminology to use.
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