Peter King: Comparing White Supremacists to ISIS Is ‘The New York Times at Its Worst’

STEPHANOPOULOS: "And what is the fact that we can see three somewhat coordinated attacks on Friday hours apart, even though — even if the people weren’t talking? What does that say about the reach of ISIS?"

KING: "ISIS is incomparable as far as terrorist organizations, as far as being able to reach. They can reach the disaffected. They can reach the deranged. They can also reach the ideologically committed. And so we see a whole soirees of attacks here in the US. You have police officers attacked with hatchets. You had the attacks in Garland, Texas. You had these arrests here in New York. I mean it’s no coincidence that you’ve seen a series of arrests here in New York of terrorists over the last week to 10 days. This is not just something that’s happening by coincidence."

STEPHANOPOULOS: "All of that is chilling. And, at the same time, I was struck by a “New York Times” report this week, Pierre, that pointed out a study by the New America Foundation, that said that since 9/11, nearly twice as many people have been killed by white supremacists and anti-government extremists as radical Muslims.They also add a study from researchers at Duke University in North Carolina, which asked 382 police and sheriff’s departments nationwide to rank the three biggest threats from violent extremism. About 74 percent listed anti-government violence, 39 percent al Qaeda-inspired violence."

THOMAS: "Well, right now, the FBI has to worry about all of the above. But I think they were very concerned about the ISIS threat because of the violent, horrific nature of what could happen in the United States that would get exponential international coverage. Just think of a lone wolf attacking a mall and you could have a situation similar to what you saw in France a few months ago."

KING: "Yes, I — I totally just — disregarded what “The New York Times” said. The fact is, I — I can’t believe any [indecipherable] law enforcement officer, looking at the potential of threats that are out there — for instance, the Boston Marathon bombing, there were four killed. Almost 300 people were wounded. And the fact that in the — that Eric Holder, who was a pretty liberal attorney general, said what kept him awake at night was the lone wolf Islamist terrorist who would carry out an attack. There’s no — listen, every murder is horrible. There is no comparison between these white supremacists and an internationally coordinated movement which, if the attacks were not stopped, we could have thousands and thousands of deaths. Just seven years ago, the attempted subway attacks here in New York would have killed hundreds, if not thousands, of people, if that were not intercepted. So everything should be investigated, everything should be stopped. But to compare these deranged white supremacists with an organized international terrorist movement, that’s “The New York Times” at its worst."

STEPHANOPOULOS: "Peter King, Pierre Thomas, thanks very much."