The ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee on Monday said the Obama administration has drawn an “iron curtain” when it comes to providing information to members of Congress regarding the attempted Christmas Day terror attack.
“It’s very hard, even for me being on the Homeland Security Committee and the Intelligence Committee, to get any information out of this administration. We’re still trying to find out what happened at Ft. Hood, they won’t give us information on that,” Rep. Peter King (R-NY) told Fox News Monday morning.
King also criticized White House officials for not speaking out on last Friday’s incident yet.
“We’re now what, 72 hours into this? And the President has not spoken, the Vice President has not spoken, the Attorney General has not spoken and Janet Napolitano has now told two different stories in two days,” he said to Fox referring to the Secretary of Homeland Security.
Sunday, Secretary Napolitano told CNN’s “State of the Union,” that “the system worked.”
Monday morning, also appearing on Fox News, the Secretary explained that her comment referred to the government’s response once the incident had occurred. “We were able to immediately institute new security precautions. … And we were immediately able to provide additional security for the traveling public.”
Napolitano added that the incident “should not have happened.”
President Obama, who is in Hawaii with his family for the Christmas holiday, is expected to make a statement on the matter from Kaneohe Marine Base in Hawaii on Monday.