Rep. King to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on travel to Olympic games: “I would not go myself.”
Today on CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) spoke with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer about the U.S. warning of explosives in toothpaste or cosmetics tubes, in airlines flying into Russia. Highlights from the interview are after the jump.
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Highlights from Full Transcript:
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BLITZER: You have confidence in what the Russians are doing?
KING: I have some confidence in what the Russians are doing but really not enough because they are not sharing enough intelligence — or virtually any intelligence — with us as to what’s happening within Russia. They’re afraid that somehow we will use that to our advantage. We are getting some information about what’s happening outside of Russia, some external threats, that type thing, or potential threats. I don’t want to overstate that. But we have a very close relationship with our allies other than the Russians, but the Russians, for instance, are cooperating nowhere nearly as much as the British did, the Chinese did, the Greeks did. So it’s not near that level of cooperation, no.
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BLITZER: So I guess the key question, are the athletes safe right now, the American spectators, the family members, the fans, all of the guests who are going to Sochi in the next few — are they safe?
KING: I would say that they are reasonably safe, but I would not go myself. I mean, if I were an athlete, that’s one thing. But just as a spectator, I don’t think it’s worth the risk. I mean, odds are nothing is going to happen, but the odds are higher than for any other Olympics, I believe, that something could happen. And the Olympic site itself probably is locked down pretty well. There is that ring of steel right around the Olympics itself. But getting there and the surrounding areas, I would say there’s real cause for concern.
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