Rep. Peter King, R-New York, said that any group that "beheaded two Americans on television" would not "be afraid to put a bomb in Lower Manhattan,"
Business Insider reported.
The Long Island congressman is chairman of the Homeland Security Counterterrorism and Intelligence subcommittee and also sits on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, according to the Almanac of American Politics.
King has said that he knows of
no specific threat against the homeland but is advocating greater vigilance.
"We have to assume it's a threat. I mean, when people say there are no terror threats from ISIS, you know, there were no terror threats to the United States from al-Qaida on September 10th either – 2001," Business Insider reported.
He said that ISIS grew out of al-Qaida in Iraq which openly spoke of an attack on the U.S. homeland. Given that thousands of ISIS fighters carry Western passports, "we have to assume at least five of them are going to try to get into this country."
King estimates that the ISIS threat is no less serious than the danger posed by al-Qaida and its affiliates, according to Business Insider.
He said Congress backed airstrikes against ISIS, including in Syria. King questioned, however, whether the Free Syrian Army was a reliable partner and whether the administration ought to rule out "so definitively" the use of U.S. ground troops, Business Insider reported.
He also thought the president's multilateralism approach was unrealistic.
"No matter what happens" the U.S. will need to "carry the brunt" of the burden "because the other countries are not able to," said King. "The president should make that clear to the American people," Business Insider reported.
The 9/11 attacks cost the lives of 160 of King's constituents, according to the Almanac.
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