Rep. Pete King's Solution For Intelligence Breakdowns: Say "Terrorism" More

In a statement yesterday, President Obama addressed the intelligence breakdown leading up to the failed Christmas Day terrorist attack.  "The U.S. government had sufficient information to have uncovered this plot," he said, adding that the intelligence community "failed to connect those dots."

This morning, Rep. Pete King (R-NY) -- who frequently attacks Obama over national security issues -- discussed Obama's comments on Good Morning America with George Stephanopoulos.  After suggesting that someone should be fired over the breakdown, King said that Obama could help prevent similar instances in the future by simply using "the word 'terrorism' more often." 

STEPHANOPOULOS: You are saying someone should be held accountable. Name one other specific recommendation the president could implement right now to fix this.

KING: I think one main thing would be to -- just himself to use the word 'terrorism' more often.

Watch:

Since Christmas, the right-wing talking point that Obama refuses to say the word "terrorism" has come back in full force.  However, as others already have pointed out, the claim is transparently false. 

At any rate, for conservatives to misrepresent and criticize Obama's rhetorical choices to argue he's "not serious" about combating terrorism is pretty much expected.  But suggesting that the president's vocabulary could influence whether intelligence officials do their jobs well, as King did this morning, is something completely different.

Steve Benen responds, "For all the talk about the GOP 'owning' national security as an issue, their understanding is, at best, superficial. No serious person can make the case that references to 'terrorism' have any impact whatsoever on the threat of global terrorism. It's just silly."