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Rep. King: Obama should not campaign on bin Laden success
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04/30/12 11:40 AM ET
Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) on Monday called it “wrong” for President Obama’s campaign to “dwell” on the successful raid last year that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden.
“I from the start said President Obama as president had a tough decision to make and he made it. I give him full credit for that,” King, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told conservative Laura Ingraham on her radio show.
“He’s entitled to mention it in the campaign in a quick way. ... make it one sentence,” King continued. “To be dwelling on it, to be somehow saying Obama did it and [Mitt] Romney wouldn’t, is wrong.”
Obama’s campaign has touted the successful operation as one of the top accomplishments of Obama’s first term.
King also objected to the upcoming NBC News special commemorating the anniversary of bin Laden’s death. According to the network, "Rock Center" host Brian Williams was given “unprecedented access to the White House Situation Room” to film the episode, which will air May 2.
King protested that former President George W. Bush only used “one second” of footage from Ground Zero in a campaign video during his reelection, but was attacked for “using” 9/11 for his own gain. King noted, as he has in the past, that Bush authorized the interrogation techniques — including waterboarding — that gained the information Obama needed to authorize last year’s raid, and so deserved more credit for bin Laden's death.
“If Obama had been president between 2001 and 2008 would we wouldn’t have gotten the information we needed to carry out the raid,” he argued.
King also blasted Obama for some of the jokes he made during the weekend’s White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, saying it “demeans the presidency.”
Obama in his speech Saturday night made light of bin Laden’s death as well as several recent scandals, including that of Secret Service agents bringing prostitutes back to their hotel room during a scouting trip to Colombia last month ahead of the president’s official state visit there.
King’s committee is part of the ongoing investigation into the agency. He noted that there is no evidence that the prostitutes were working for foreign groups, which was an early concern. At the dinner, Obama wrapped up his speech by joking that the Secret Service protecting him had to get home in time for their “new curfew.”
“It’s great for the president to be a regular guy, whatever that is,” King said. “That stuff is great in a stag show, bachelor party, whatever. I think it diminishes the office, I really do.”
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