Russian President Vladimir Putin's
call to suspend Russian flights into Egypt is "pretty much acknowledgment" that he considers the downing of a Metrojet to have been a terrorist attack, Rep. Peter King said Friday.
"That's the consensus with U.S. and U.K. officials," the New York Republican told
Fox News' "America's Newsroom" program. "In any event, I think the Russians feel there is strong evidence they don't want to take any more chances."
King said he can't go into detail, but there are various types of evidence to lead to the conclusion that the plane's crash was caused by a terrorist's bomb.
"It's a growing consensus," said King. "The fact that [British Prime Minister] David Cameron came out so soon. The fact that the president said [what he did] last night, just his whole body language and the way he was talking, that shows the direction in which the government is going. I believe this is most likely a terrorist attack. Still not definitive but very likely."
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the crash, and King said he does believe it was an affiliate of ISIS.
"It's one thing for them to make the initial claim, but the fact that they are standing by it indicates that they did do it," said King. "But again I don't want to say anything definite, but I would say it's close to being definite."
Meanwhile, he said that airport workers "don't get the same screening as passengers do," even though a bill was passed in the house in hopes of getting the TSA to reexamine that area of airport security.
"We do have procedures in place but I don't think they are 100 percent yet," he said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.