Rep. Peter King (R., N.Y.) said American citizenship should not impede the president from targeting terrorists actively plotting with Al Qaeda Thursday on CNN. King cited Anwar Al Awlaki as an appropriate example of targeting an American citizen engaged in terrorist activities abroad:
WOLF BLITZER: [...] So what do you think about this policy that we now see in these memorandums that have been revealed that the president can simply order an American citizen to be killed by a drone without any judicial review?
PETER KING: Wolf, from everything i've seen over the last several years, including everything that's come out in the last several days, I think the president is acting according to the law, according to the Constitution, the president's main job, his main obligation is to protect the security of the American people, and the fact that the enemy may happen to be an American citizen should not give that enemy any immunity. And to me there are sufficient procedures in place, there are protocols in place. And to say that someone that is on the battlefield, who is a high-ranking member of an enemy force is somehow entitled to due process, listen, if we can capture that person, if we could somehow bring him to justice, otherwise, fine. But you take someone like Al Awlaki, he was more dangerous than Bin Laden.