Peter T. King

Peter T. King
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 2nd district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2013
Preceded by	Steve Israel
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 3rd district
In office January 3, 1993 – January 3, 2013
Preceded by	Robert Mrazek
Succeeded by	Steve Israel
Chairman of the United States House Committee on Homeland Security
In office January 3, 2011 – January 3, 2013
Preceded by	Bennie Thompson
In office January 3, 2005 – January 3, 2007
Preceded by	Christopher Cox
Succeeded by	Bennie Thompson
Nassau County Comptroller
In office 1981–1993
Preceded by	M. Hallstead Christ
Succeeded by	Alan Gurein
Member of the Hempstead Town Council
In office 1977–1981
Personal details
Born	Peter Thomas King (1944-04-05) April 5, 1944 New York City, New York
Political party	Republican, Conservative
Spouse(s)	Rosemary Wiedl; 2 children
Residence	Seaford, New York, U.S.
Alma mater	St. Francis College University of Notre Dame Law School
Occupation	Attorney
Religion	Roman Catholic
Website	Congressman Pete King
Military service
Service/branch	United States Army National Guard
Years of service	1968-1974
Rank	Specialist 5
Unit	69th Infantry Regiment(New York)

Peter Thomas King (born April 5, 1944) is the U.S. Representative for New York's 2nd congressional district, serving since 1993. He is a member of the Republican Party and represents the central Long Island district that includes parts of Nassau and Suffolk counties.

King formerly served as the Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, where he drew attention in early 2011 for holding hearings on the extent of radicalization of Muslim Americans. He also sits on the Financial Services Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He stepped down after his seventh year as Homeland Security Chair because of self-imposed Republican term limits. He remains a member of the committee.

Early life, education, and career

King was born in Manhattan and raised in Sunnyside, Queens, New York. His father, also named Peter King, was a New York City police officer. He graduated from St. Francis College (Brooklyn) in 1965, and earned his Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Notre Dame University Law School in 1968. That same year, he began service in the 165th Infantry Regiment. He worked for the Nassau County District Attorney's Office until 1974, when he was honorably discharged from the 165th Infantry Regiment.^{[citation needed]}

Early political career

King first sought public office in 1977, running for an at-large seat on the Hempstead, New York Town Council and winning with the backing of the then-powerful Nassau County Republican Party machine led by Joseph Margiotta. In 1981, he successfully ran for Nassau County Comptroller again with Margiotta's support. The next year, when several prominent Republican politicians, led by then Senator Alfonse D'Amato, sought to displace Margiotta, King joined them in this internal Republican dispute; at one point, he was the only Nassau politician to do so. King was re-elected in 1985 and 1989. As Comptroller, he displayed independence, often criticizing the budget proposals of County Executives Francis Purcell and later County Executive Thomas Gulotta, both Republicans.

During the 1990s King enjoyed a close relationship with the Muslim community in his congressional district. King often gave speeches at the Westbury Islamic Center, held book signings in the prayer hall, took in Muslim interns, and was one of the few Republicans who supported U.S. intervention in the 1990s to help Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo. The Muslim community thanked King for his work by making him the guest of honor for the 1993 opening of a $3 million prayer hall. For years, a picture of King cutting the ceremonial ribbon hung on the bulletin board by the mosque's entrance.

Political positions

King voted for the 2008 Wall Street bailout, saying it was "necessary for the financial health of New York and his district." He opposed the 2009 economic stimulus package and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. He supports congressional earmarks.

On May 27, 2010, the House of Representatives moved to vote to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell; King voted against the repeal of this policy. He was endorsed by the Brady Campaign in 2006 and 2008.

King has been a vocal opponent of illegal immigration. He opposed John McCain's 2007 effort to enact a path to citizenship for current illegal immigrants.

Although he supported John McCain for president in 2000 and despite his earlier disagreements with George W. Bush, King later became a Bush supporter. King also opposed McCain's calls for an end to torture methods used during terrorist suspect interrogations. The New York Times wrote in 2006 that King had been "the Patriot Act's most fervent fan." In 2008, he told the Times, "Look, we have not been attacked in seven years and it's not because of luck."

He supported the Iraq War from 2002 on. King supported President Obama's order to kill Osama Bin Laden, saying that he knows it is a "tough decision" to make in the Situation Room. He also approved of Obama's surprise trip to Afghanistan in May 2012.

King has opposed President Barack Obama's executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Since 2009 King has argued against holding terrorist trials in New York City saying that enormous security risks and financial costs would accompany the public trials. In April 2011, he called for Attorney General Eric Holder to resign due to Holder's plans to transfer Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other alleged co-conspirators in the September 11, 2001 attacks from Guantanamo to New York City for trials in U.S. federal court. King denounced Holder's plan "as the most irresponsible decision ever made by any attorney general." Holder had recently backed off, announcing that the trials would be held in a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.

King continued to challenge Holder in April 2011, demanding to know why the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), its co-founder Omar Ahmad, the Islamic Society of North America, the North American Islamic Trust. and other unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial, were not being prosecuted by the United States Department of Justice. In a letter to Holder, King wrote he had recently learned that the decision had been made by high-ranking Justice Department officials "over the vehement and stated objections of special agents and supervisors of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as the prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Dallas", adding that "there should be full transparency into the Department’s decision." Holder responded that the decision not to prosecute had been made during the Bush administration. The U.S. Attorney in Dallas said he alone had been responsible for the decision, which had been made based on an analysis of the law and the evidence, with no political pressure involved.

In December 2009, King commented on reports that accused attempted airline bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, had admitted to being trained and equipped in Yemen and on then pending plans to release several Guantanamo prisoners to Yemen: "I don't think Guantanamo should be closed, but if we're going to close it I don't believe we should be sending people to Yemen where prisoners have managed to escape in the past .... Obviously, if [Abdulmutallab] did get training and direction from Yemen, it just adds to what is already a dangerous situation", he said.|

King criticized the activities of WikiLeaks and in December 2010 suggested that the group be designated a "terrorist organization" and treated as such by U.S. agencies. In 2011, King became a co-sponsor of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

King praised President Barack Obama's nominations of Leon Panetta for United States Secretary of Defense and General David Petraeus for Director of the Central Intelligence Agency saying, "Director Panetta has done an outstanding job at the CIA, and General Petraeus has distinguished himself as one of the great American military leaders. Both men ... will be instrumental as we continue to combat the terrorist threat.”

Positions

Support for the IRA

King began actively supporting the Irish republican movement in the late 1970s. He frequently traveled to Northern Ireland to meet with senior members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA), many of whom he counted as friends. He compared the leader of Sinn Féin, the political wing of the PIRA, Gerry Adams to George Washington, and asserted that the "British government is a murder machine". However, he did not meet Adams until 1984.

King became involved with NORAID, an organization that the British, Irish and U.S. governments had accused of financing IRA activities and providing them with weapons. Regarding the 30 years of violence during which the IRA killed over 1,700 people, including Lord Mountbatten, Lord Kaberry, Sir Anthony Berry MP and over 600 civilians, King said, "If civilians are killed in an attack on a military installation, it is certainly regrettable, but I will not morally blame the IRA for it". A U.S. citizen (Kenneth Salvesen) had been killed and another, Mark McDonald, wounded in the December 1983 PIRA Harrods bombing, which resulted in a total of six deaths and ninety injuries.

He also called the PIRA "the legitimate voice of occupied Ireland" although the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), which opposed all violence and spoke for most of Northern Ireland's Catholics at that time, remained the majority nationalist party in Northern Ireland until 2003. Speaking at a pro-PIRA rally in 1982 in Nassau County, New York, King pledged support to "those brave men and women who this very moment are carrying forth the struggle against British imperialism in the streets of Belfast and Derry." In 1985, the Irish government boycotted New York's annual St. Patrick's Day celebrations in protest at King serving as Grand Marshal of the event; the Irish government condemned him as an "avowed" supporter of IRA terrorism. At the parade he again offered words of support for the IRA.

A judge in Northern Ireland ejected King from the courtroom, describing King as "an obvious collaborator with the IRA". Some organizations reported that King was banned from appearing on British TV for his pro-IRA views.^{[citation needed]}

In 1993, King lobbied unsuccessfully for Gerry Adams to be a guest at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton. In 2000, he called then-presidential candidate George W. Bush a tool of "anti-Catholic bigoted forces", after Bush visited Bob Jones University in South Carolina, described by King as "an institution that is notorious in Ireland for awarding an honorary doctorate to Northern Ireland's tempestuous Protestant leader, Ian Paisley." King was a go-between during the Northern Ireland peace process, and has said that the PIRA was a "legitimate force that had to be recognized" in order to have peace.

Although disgruntled by near unanimous Irish nationalist/republican opposition to the 2003 United States invasion of Iraq, King nonetheless supported bail in 2008 for an Irish republican Maze escapee, Pól Brennan, who had escaped from prison in Northern Ireland in 1983. Brennan was later deported to the Republic of Ireland in April 2009. In a 2005 interview King said he had "cooled on Ireland", blaming an epidemic of what he called "knee-jerk anti-Americanism" that swept through Ireland after the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. "I don't buy that it's just anti-Bush. There's a certain unpleasant trait that the Irish have, and it's begrudgery ... and resentment towards the Americans."

King, who often used to visit Belfast twice a year, has not visited Ireland since shortly before the September 11 attacks. He claimed to have turned down an offer from the Obama administration to be the US ambassador to Ireland in 2009.

At a September 2011 hearing in England concerning terrorism, King said the PIRA used British torture as a recruiting tool, but that it has no parallels with American treatment of suspects after 9/11. Labour MP David Winnick commented to King that "there’s been some surprise in the United States but also in Britain that you have a job looking into and investigating into terrorism" and added that King "seems to be an apologist for terrorism".

Comments about American mosques

In 2004, King claimed in an interview with conservative talk radio host Sean Hannity that "no American Muslim leaders are cooperating in the war on terror," and that "80-85 percent of mosques in this country are controlled by Islamic fundamentalists .... This is an enemy living amongst us." The Council on American-Islamic Relations denounced the comments as "Islamophobic bigotry" and Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe called on President George W. Bush to "condemn this latest example of hate-filled language." In a September 2007 interview with the website Politico.com, King said that "There are too many mosques in this country... There are too many people sympathetic to radical Islam. We should be looking at them more carefully and finding out how we can infiltrate them." King later said he meant to say that too many mosques in the United States do not cooperate with law enforcement.

Radicalization hearings

In December 2010, King announced that when he became chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee he would hold hearings on the radicalization of American Muslims. While allowing that, "The overwhelming majority of Muslims are outstanding citizens," he also claimed that some Islamic clerics were telling their congregations to ignore extremism and to refrain from helping investigators. King cited Justice Department statistics showing that over the previous two years, 50 U.S. citizens had been charged with major acts of terrorism, and all were motivated by radical Islamic ideologies.

The first hearing, held on March 10, 2011, was entitled "The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community's Response." The hearing included testimony from Representative John D. Dingell of Michigan, Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota, who is one of two Muslims in the U.S. Congress, Representative Frank Wolf of Virginia, and Los Angeles County Sheriff Leroy Baca. Others to provide testimony included Dr. M Zuhdi Jasser, a Muslim and Founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy; Melvin Bledsoe, whose son, a Muslim convert, is serving a life sentence for killing a soldier and wounding another in the 2009 Little Rock recruiting office shooting; and Abdirizak Bihi, the Director of the Somali Education and Social Advocacy Center. The Council on American Islamic Relations submitted a statement to the committee.

In an article for the National Review, King announced that his second and third Homeland Security Committee hearings on radicalization would focus on foreign money coming into American mosques and al Shabab’s efforts to recruit young Muslims men in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The second hearing was set for mid-May while the third was tentatively scheduled for July. King stated he would continue to hold radicalization hearings as long as he is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

Reactions

Bennie Thompson, the ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, responded by saying that "none of these [law enforcement and intelligence] officials have backed King's assertions that the Muslim community has not been helpful in thwarting terrorist attacks." Thompson wrote King demanding that the scope of the hearings be widened to include all extremist groups in the United States, irrespective of ideology. Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said that there was nothing to support King's claims of non-cooperation by American Muslims, and invited King to Los Angeles to show the cooperation between Muslim-Americans and law enforcement.

The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) in a letter to King claimed that his call was sweeping and misguided, and called for a meeting with him to discuss his initiatives, the proposed hearings, and the efforts of the Muslim American community in fighting radicalization.

The Council on American Islamic Relations joined 50 other organizations, including Amnesty International, the Sikh Coalition, the Japanese American Citizens League and Unitarian Universalist Service Committee in signing a letter to Speaker of the House John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi comparing the hearings to those held by Senator Joe McCarthy in the 1950s and calling them "divisive and wrong", and "an affront to fundamental [American] freedoms" A journalist for The Guardian, Seema Jilani described King as "America's new McCarthy" who was instigating "a bigoted witchhunt."

Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the conservative religious organization American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which opposed the building of the Park 51 community center, declared his support for King and the hearings, and remarked "This hearing isn’t about profiling — it’s about protecting our homeland."

Frank Gaffney, founder and president of the American Center for Security Policy, praised King for holding a hearing "about an issue that has long been deemed politically untouchable", and opined that King had indeed shown there is "a problem of 'extremism' within the American Muslim community."

Several members of Congress, including Republican Representatives Mike Rogers of Alabama and Joe Walsh of Illinois, wrote letters of support for King's hearings. Rogers wrote that radicalization could happen anywhere in the United States, and thus it is an issue all Americans have to deal with. Walsh added that “Homegrown terrorists are the number one threat facing American families right now, and it would be irresponsible and negligent not to try and identify the causes of their radicalization.”

Comments about Michael Jackson

On July 5, 2009, shortly after the death of Michael Jackson, King made a video statement chiding the media for its coverage of Jackson's death:

"Let's knock out the psychobabble. He was a pervert, a child molester, he was a pedophile. And to be giving this much coverage to him, day in and day out, what does it say about us as a country? I just think we're too politically correct. No one wants to stand up and say we don't need Michael Jackson. He died, he had some talent, fine. There's men and women dying every day in Afghanistan. Let's give them the credit they deserve.

Due to the high-profile nature of Jackson's death, King's statement generated national media coverage. In reaction to the controversy, King said, "I believe I'm articulating the views of a great majority of the American people".

Comments about the Occupy Wall Street movement

On October 7, 2011, King commented on the Occupy Wall Street movement:

We have to be careful not to allow this to get any legitimacy. I’m taking this seriously in that I’m old enough to remember what happened in the 1960s when the left-wing took to the streets and somehow the media glorified them and it ended up shaping policy. We can’t allow that to happen.

Committee assignments

King's committee assignments for the 112th United States Congress are:

• Committee on Homeland Security
  • As chair, King serves as an ex officio member of all subcommittees.
• Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
  • Subcommittee on Terrorism, HUMINT, Analysis and Counterintelligence
• United States House Committee on Financial Services

Political campaigns

1986 NYS Republican ticket

• Governor: Andrew O'Rourke
• Lieutenant Governor: E. Michael Kavanagh
• Comptroller: Edward Regan
• Attorney General: Peter T. King
• U.S. Senate: Alfonse D'Amato

1992 to 2008

When Democratic Congressman Robert Mrazek announced his short-lived candidacy for Senate against Republican incumbent Alphonse D'Amato in 1992, King ran for the then vacant 3rd Congressional District seat. Despite being outspent 5-to-1, King won 50% to 47%. From 1993-2008, he sometimes faced only token opposition, while in other races, he ran against those who could self-finance their campaigns. Although King was outspent in those races, he would ultimately win by double-digit margins. In 2006, originally Nassau County Legislator David Denenberg intended to run against King. When he dropped out shortly after his announcement, fellow legislator Dave Mejias ran instead. While some pundits believed this race would be close due to dissatisfaction with Bush, King defeated Mejias 56% to 44%. King again sought re-election to Congress in 2008. The Democrats fielded 25-year-old newcomer Graham Long in a long-shot bid to defeat King. King won the 2008 election with 64% of the vote.

Speculation of a 2010 Senate campaign

Main article: United States Senate special election in New York, 2010

After briefly contemplating running for Governor of New York in 2010, King announced that he was seriously thinking of running for the U.S. Senate in a special election for the last two years of the term won in 2006 by Hillary Clinton, who had since been appointed Secretary of State. King had contemplated running for Senate in 2000 against Hillary Clinton, and even created an exploratory committee in 2003 to challenge Chuck Schumer. Both times he ended up deciding against them. King said there would be no primary with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, as the latter would instead opt to throw his support behind King and possibly explore a gubernatorial bid.

When Kirsten Gillibrand, the representative of New York's 20th Congressional District, was appointed to fill the seat until the special election by Governor David Paterson, King said he would consider holding off on making a run for the seat: "If he appointed Caroline Kennedy, I was ready to file papers right away because she’s a superstar and you can’t let her build a head of steam – and she was totally unqualified in my perspective. With Kirsten, she's entitled to be given an opportunity to build a record for the state." However, two days after the Gillibrand pick, King demanded Paterson justify his selection of the congresswoman, saying there were more qualified candidates. In August 2009, King ruled out a senate run; however, in January 2010, he said he was reconsidering a run. Although polls showed King doing favorably against Gillibrand if he chose to run, King ultimately decided to run for re-election for congress, which he won with 72% of the vote.^{[citation needed]}

Electoral history

Third party candidates omitted, so percentages may not add up to 100%.

New York's 3rd U.S. Congressional District
Year	Candidate	Votes	%
2012	Peter T. King (R)	131,091	59.0%
	Vivianne Falcone (D)	92,060	41.0%
2010	Peter T. King (R)	126,142	72.0%
	Howard Kudler (D)	48,963	28.0%
2008	Peter T. King (R)	135,648	64.02%
	Graham Long (D)	76,918	35.08%
2006	Peter T. King (R)	101,787	56.04%
	David Mejias (D)	79,843	43.95%
2004	Peter T. King (R)	171,259	62.96%
	Blair Mathies (D)	100,737	37.03%
2002	Peter T. King (R)	121,537	71.88%
	Stuart Finz (D)	46,022	27.22%
2000	Peter T. King (R)	143,126	59.52%
	Dal LaMagna (D)	95,787	39.84%
1998	Peter T. King (R)	117,258	64.29%
	Kevin Langberg (D)	63,628	34.88%
1996	Peter T. King (R)	127,972	55.29%
	Dal LaMagna (D)	97,518	42.13%
1994	Peter T. King (R)	115,236	59.23%
	Norma Grill (D)	77,774	39.98%
1992	Peter T. King (R)	124,727	49.56%
	Steve Orlins (D)	116,915	46.46%

Personal life

King resides in Seaford, New York with his wife, Rosemary Wiedl King, with whom he has two children. King has authored three novels: Terrible Beauty, Deliver Us From Evil, and Vale of Tears.

See also

• Death of Kenneth Salvesen
• 9/11 Commission
• United States Department of Homeland Security

External links

• U.S. Congressman Pete King official U.S. House site
• Pete King for Congress official campaign site
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Profile at Ballotpedia
• Congressional profile at GovTrack
• Congressional profile at OpenCongress
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Financial information (federal office) at OpenSecrets.org
• Staff salaries, trips and personal finance (federal office) at LegiStorm.com
• Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
• Voting record at The Washington Post
• Appearances on C-SPAN programs
• Appearances at the Internet Movie Database
• Collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Collected news and commentary at The Washington Post
• Profile at SourceWatch
• House Committee on Homeland Security

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Steve Israel	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 2nd congressional district 2013–	Succeeded by Incumbent
United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Robert J. Mrazek	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 3rd congressional district 1993–2013	Succeeded by Steve Israel
United States order of precedence
Preceded by Eddie Bernice Johnson D-Texas	United States Representatives by seniority 61st	Succeeded by Jack Kingston R-Georgia
Political offices
Preceded by Chris Cox California	Chairman of House Homeland Security Committee 2005–2007	Succeeded by Bennie Thompson Mississippi
Preceded by Bennie Thompson Mississippi	Chairman of House Homeland Security Committee 2011–2013	Succeeded by Michael McCaul Texas
Preceded by M. Hallstead Christ	Nassau County Comptroller 1981–1992	Succeeded by Alan Gurein
Party political offices
Preceded by Frances Sciafani	Republican Nominee for New York State Attorney General 1986	Succeeded by Bernard C. Smith