Rep. King to Hillary: ‘Get ready’ for 2016

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) on Friday said he told Hillary Clinton a day earlier to “get ready” for 2016.

King was asked on CNN’s “Newsroom” if he’s mulling a run for the next GOP presidential nomination. 

“I’m certainly looking at it. I’ll be back in New Hampshire on June 21st. And when I saw Hillary Clinton yesterday, I told her to get ready,” he said of his trip to the nation’s first primary state.

It’s unclear when exactly King issued the warning on Thursday, but both attended the September 11 Memorial Museum dedication ceremony that day in New York, and spoke to each other there. 

{mosads}Asked if he thinks he could sweep the Republican field and that Clinton would win the Democratic nomination, King demurred, saying “Oh, I don’t know.” 

But, he admitted a debate between himself and Clinton would be “a good show.” 

King explained he’s considering a White House bid because he doesn’t like the direction of the Republican Party.

“I’m looking at this because I see people like Rand Paul and Ted Cruz and, to me, I don’t want the Republican Party going in that direction,” he said. 

Paul (Ky.) has libertarian support while Cruz (Texas) is backed by the Tea Party.

“Whether it’s me or someone else, I want to do all that I can to make sure that what I call the realistic foreign policy wing and national security wing of the Republican Party does not give into the isolationists. And I don’t want to go back to the 1930s and the days of Charles Lindbergh,” he said. 

Last September, King told New Hampshire radio station WMUR “right now, I’m running for president.”

He has already visited New Hampshire multiple times over the last year. 

King, who will be 72 at the time of the 2016 election, was first elected to Congress in 1992 and previously served as chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.