Rep. Peter King: Obama is ‘too apologetic’

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) says President Obama should stop apologizing for the U.S. government’s foreign policy and intelligence-gathering decisions.  

“I think the president should stop apologizing, stop being defensive,” he said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

The former House Homeland Security Committee chairman touched on the recent reports claiming the National Security Agency has spied on more than 30 governments overseas, including leaders of allies. 

“The fact is they’ve carried out spying operations against the U.S.,” King said of the other governments. “We’re not doing this for the fun of it. This is for gathering valuable intelligence, which helps not just us, but also helps the Europeans.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called President Obama last week, outraged over a report that said her cellphone had been tapped. Obama said the U.S. is not monitoring and will not monitor her communications, but did not address if it had happened before. 

{mosads}The president is too apologetic, King said. 

The president’s handling of Syria in August and September, he added, was “indefensible.” Obama’s back-and-forth decisions about whether or not to strike the country after news surfaced of a chemical attack caused people to lose faith in the U.S., King said. 

“We’re going to look back on Syria … the mixed signals he sent over that two-, three-, four-week period is going to have lasting damage.”

He also said, “We should stop being apologetic about drones,” contending in every war, there’s collateral damage. 

“If he can find the time to go to Junior’s Cheesecake with Bill de Blasio, he can find the time to go out to Fort Meade and stand with Gen. [Keith] Alexander.”

Obama visited the famous cheesecake destination in New York Friday with de Blasio, the Democratic candidate for mayor of New York City.