Peter King in Sunday Political Talk Show interviews during 2013-2015

On War & Peace: Attacking ISIS in Syria is in our national interest

KING: No, so far we're not. And where I disagree with the president on this--to me, attacking ISIS in Syria is in our national interest. Now if we can get allies, if we can get a coalition together, that's fine, and we should work on it. But we can't be beholden to a coalition because we're not doing this out of humanitarian purposes and quite frankly we're not doing it for the people of Syria or Iraq. Ultimately we're doing it because it's in our national interest to do so. And if that's the case, we can't be holding back. We should attack and strike and do all we can to the command and control centers that ISIS has in Syria. That is a key component of ISIS located in Syria so we shouldn't be waiting for other countries.

On War & Peace: Don't let Iran participate in our fight against ISIS

KING: I think it's a terrible mistake. Iran is powerful enough. Ultimately they are the main threat in that part of the world, and to be doing anything at all to build them up, to give them sanctuary, to in effect have them on our side, what does that do to Israel? What does that do to their nuclear development in plan? I think it weakens our position. I cannot understand why we want to get Iran involved.

The president said absolutely no US boots on the ground in a combat role. Will US forces at some point have to get involved in some kind of a combat role?

KING: Well, we already have American troops on the ground. We have Special Forces there. They are obviously in harm's way. And I don't see how ultimately we can avoid putting combat troops on the ground in some capacity. But more than that, I don't know why the president says up front that we're not going to put boots on the ground. Don't take anything off the table.

On War & Peace: ISIS creates a privileged sanctuary from which to attack US

REP. PETER KING: That is a very real concern. There's no doubt that ISIS looks upon itself as an Iraq/Syria power and it definitely has talked with the United States going back to 2011 when it was just Al Qaeda and Iraq before the Syrian component had even kicked in. We captured a number of their officers in the United States, attempting to carry out an attack on Fort Knox. So clearly, if they can get good sanctuary in their Northeastern Syria, in Iraq, this makes it, in effect, a privileged sanctuary to attack the United States apart from the destabilization they can do throughout the Middle East, especially the countries such as Jordan and to Israel. And that also of course increases the power of Iran as far as being an influence in that region.

On Immigration: Secure border plus a pathway to citizenship

In the missive, dated April 23, King tells Boehner that a "confluence of events" makes immigration reform possible, including a path to citizenship coupled with "strong and real" border security and enforcement measures: "It would be in our country's national interest as well as the interest of our party if this could be achieved," King wrote.

King calls for the "strongest language" possible that would compel President Barack Obama and future administrations to comply with whatever border-security laws that lawmakers write. Security measures included in the Senate Gang of Eight bill, as well as a separate House border-security bill passed through a House committee last year, provide a "good base" to start from, he said.

On Immigration: Don't reward illegal behavior, but can't deport 11 million

"As to the issues of legalization and citizenship for undocumented immigrants, I fully understand and appreciate the argument that illegal behavior should not be rewarded," King wrote. "The reality though is that we are not going to deport 11 million immigrants."

The letter, which has not been widely released, was obtained by POLITICO and confirmed by King's office.

On Homeland Security: US FBI should investigate when planes disappear abroad

KING: The FBI was not asked in. The pilot and co-pilot should have been the focus from the start. That would be ordinary law enforcement, investigatory procedures. But my understanding is that Malaysia is not really cooperating at all, are very reluctant to lay what they have out on the table.

Q: The focus IS on the pilots. Basically, everyone else on the plane has been looked at. No terrorist connections.

KING: There's nothing out there indicating it's terrorists. Doesn't mean it's not, but so far nothing has been picked up. I still have questions about the two Iranians who were on the plane. But again that could be a side issue.

Q: So what is the next step now for US authorities?

KING: I wish there was more FAA, NTSB, FBI involvement. This has to focus on the pilot and the copilot.

On Homeland Security: NSA needs secrecy, and has had no abuses

KING: First of all, I think Edward Snowden is a defector and a traitor. And the fact is there is no agency that is more monitored and more watched than the NSA. It's monitored by the courts, by the Justice Department, by the intelligence committees in the Senate and the House. I think it's absolutely indispensable to our national security. There have been no abuses.

Q: But the American people had no idea what it was doing.

KING: I don't think everyone has to know what a spy agency is doing. By their nature, a spy agency, it's kept secret. That's the purpose of it.

Q: But is it collapsing? Is it going to exist in the future?

KING: If it doesn't, it's going to be calamitous for the country.

On Homeland Security: N.S.A. spying has saved thousands of lives

KING: First of all, I think the president should stop apologizing, stop being defensive. The reality is the NSA has saved thousands of lives, not just in the US but also in France and Germany and throughout Europe. And, you know, the French have carried out spying operations against the US, both the government and industry. Germany is where the Hamburg plot began which led to 9/11

Q: But we were apparently bugging [German Chancellor] Angela Merkel's phone since 2002.

KING: We've saved many lives in Germany because of the intelligence we've given them. And we're not doing this to hurt Germany, but the fact is, there can be information that's being transmitted that can be useful to us, and then ultimately useful to Germany. Quite frankly, the NSA has done so much for our country. We have to have strong spying.

On War & Peace: Stop being so defensive about drones

KING: If we go too much in the open then we let the enemy know what's going on and we create problems. And as far as the use of drones, the fact is, every war there is collateral damage. Unfortunately innocent people are killed. But the efforts that the US takes to protect innocent lives is unprecedented. If you want to go back to Dresden and Hamburg and what happened in WWII, where thousands of civilians were killed, the fact is this has kept Americans alive, it's also helped people in the Middle East. So I think we should stop being apologetic about drones, tell Rand Paul to stop doing overnight filibusters on people being killed with drones. We should be standing by our military. We have stop being so defensive.

On Homeland Security: Problem with Snowden leak is lack of presidential leadership

Rep. KING: What I mean is, I fully support the NSA program. It's been effective. It's done an outstanding job. I am very critical of the president for basically being silent for the last two months. He's allowed the Edward Snowdens and the others of the world to dominate the media and that now we have so many people who actually think the NSA is spying on people, is listening to our phone calls, is reading our e-mails. We're in war. We're in a very desperate war with al Qaeda terrorists and their affiliates and the President of the United States as commander-in-chief had the obligation to be aggressively and effectively defending his program and he really didn't do it. [Snowden] spread a paranoia in the country. The President should have been out there sooner.

On War & Peace: Assad is evil, but arming rebels brings another dictator

KING: I have real concerns. The reason I say that is that so much time has gone by, and unfortunately, to a large extent, al Qaeda elements have a lot of control within the rebel movements. My concern is that, by arming the rebels, we could be strengthening al Qaeda. So, whatever arming we do--and obviously, Assad is evil, and everyone is interested that he go--but if we are going to arm the rebels, we have to make sure that those arms are not going to end up in the possession of al Qaeda supporters nor at the end game is al Qaeda going to be in a position to take over this movement.

Q: That's a pretty high bar, right? I mean, we put weapons into countries a lot and don't know where they're going to end up.

KING: Until we have a better understanding of where the weapons will be going, I'm very concerned that we're just replacing one terrible dictator with a terrible ideological movement, which is aimed at our destruction.