Former New York Gov. George Pataki on Sunday said the threat of terrorism in the U.S. was worse than at any time since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“I think we are at greater risk today than at any time since Sept. 11 of another terrorist attack in America,” he told host John Catsimatidis on AM 970’s “The Cats Roundtable” in New York.
Pataki, a 2016 GOP presidential candidate, said the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) had posed the gravest danger to national security since the Twin Towers fell.
{mosads}“ISIS has enormous, enormous financial resources, they have sophisticated weaponry, and they have thousands of people with Western passports and unbelievable social media capability,” he said.
“Their continued existence poses a threat to our security here in America.”
Pataki argued he would expand air strikes against the extremist group and help better equip and train militaries in Iraq and Syria countering them.
In addition, he said he would also send American advisors overseas to aid in plotting strategies against the terrorist organization.
If those moves failed, Pataki added, he would back the use of limited special operations strikes against targets crucial to ISIS and its operations.
“I don’t want to put any American’s life at risk,” he said. “I do know that ISIS poses a threat to our safety here.”
“I know what it’s like as a parent to lie awake at night while your children are in harm’s way,” Pataki said, citing his two sons who performed military tours of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Pataki launched his presidential campaign May 28 in Exeter, N.H..
He charged Sunday that his experience managing New York made him exceptionally qualified for the Oval Office.
“I have the ability to make those tough decisions,” Pataki said. “If the heat gets turned up in the kitchen, I won’t melt.”
Pataki cited President Obama’s short Senate service as proof of what can happen when voters elect an untested candidate into the White House.
“President Obama didn’t have the executive background, didn’t have the private-sector background, and it has shown in his leadership or lack of leadership in Washington,” he said.
Pataki said a major focus of his potential presidency would be the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
He said he found it “unacceptable” that the agency failed its own internal bomb tests at multiple mass-transit airports in a report released on Monday.
“That is just a catastrophe,” he said. “I would fire the entire administration. It opens the door for terrorists and hijackers to take American lives here.”