TPM tracked down Congressman Steve King at CPAC today, and asked him whether he thinks jihadists are coming over the southern border of the U.S., like Rep. Sue Myrick and Rick Santorum have claimed.
“I know there is. I know from reports that we occasionally pick up ‘people of interest from nations of interest,’” King said, explaining that “people of interest from nations of interest” is a government euphemism for jihadists.
King continued: “I am concerned about it. They know around the globe that our southern border is porous. And the ‘people of interest from nations of interest’ will pay sometimes a nice check to be smuggled into the United States.”
Myrick, Santorum, and other Republicans have repeatedly claimed that agents of Hezbollah are infiltrating the United States by posing as illegal immigrants. A DHS spokesman told TPM in November that “at this time, DHS does not have any credible information on terrorist groups operating along the Southwest Border.”
When I asked King about what the DHS said, he replied: “I think that they’re not even willing to say the word jihadists.”
“They can make that statement, but that is language that you can not pin them down on,” King said.
Jillian Rayfield
Jillian Rayfield is a Reporter/Blogger for TPM, and started as a News Intern in May 2009. She graduated from Cornell University in May 2008 with a degree in Film, and worked as a Research Assistant for a market research firm in London in between.
Facebook Conversations
Questions about commenting with non-Facebook accounts like Yahoo, or other concerns? Click here to read the TPM Commenting FAQ.