Leadership Quote by Peter King

King’s line is built to do two things at once: narrow the target and widen the indictment. By naming “Islamic terrorists” twice, he isn’t just describing a threat; he’s insisting on a particular lens for national security, one that makes terrorism synonymous with Islam and renders other forms of political violence secondary, even suspect. The repetition functions like a rhetorical seatbelt: it locks the listener into his framing before any debate can begin.

The second move is bureaucratic outrage. “The department” (read: Homeland Security) becomes a faceless institution that has drifted from its founding purpose. “Set up primarily” invokes a post-9/11 origin story, a moral mandate, a time when priorities were supposedly clear. Then comes the punch: “they talk about everything but that.” It’s a classic political accusation of mission creep, but also a preemptive delegitimization of any agenda he doesn’t want DHS to pursue - domestic extremism, immigration, cyber threats, disaster response, even civil liberties. The vagueness of “everything” is the feature: it lets the audience fill in their preferred grievance.

The subtext is as much about policing speech as it is about policing borders. King implies that naming “Islamic” terror is the honest, unvarnished truth, while avoiding it is cowardice, political correctness, or ideological capture. In the era of hearings about Muslim radicalization and fights over “violent extremism” language, the quote works as a pressure tactic: define the enemy my way, or you’re failing at the job.