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King denied a Senate bid.

(CNN) – Peter King made it official Monday.

The Republican congressman from New York State announced that he won't take on Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand next year when the appointed senator runs for the final two years of Hillary Clinton's term.

After Clinton announced that she would step down from her seat to become secretary of state, King - the last remanning GOP congressman from Long Island, a former Republican bastion - hinted that he might make a bid for statewide office. But in recent months, most political observers wrote off any actual run by King.

King says it came down to money.

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King is against Holder's decision.

(CNN) – Peter King, the New York congressman likely to challenge Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in 2010, is blasting the Obama administration's decision to investigate Bush-era CIA interrogations.

"It's bullsh*t. It's disgraceful. You wonder which side they're on," the Long Island Republican told Politico Tuesday.

On Monday, Attorney Gen. Eric Holder asked federal prosecutor John Durham to examine whether CIA interrogations of suspected terrorists were illegal in the months and years after the September 11 attacks.

Holder said he decided to expand Durham's mandate after examining reports from the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility as well as a classified version of the 2004 CIA inspector general's report into questionable interrogation techniques, among other documents."

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(CNN) – New York Rep. Peter King called on the media to "knock out the psycho-babble" and stop covering Michael Jackson because "this guy was a pervert."

"He was a child molester. He was a pedophile. And to be giving this much coverage to him day in and day out, what does it say about us as a country," King said Sunday in front of the American Legion Hall in Wantagh. "We're too politically correct. No one wants to stand up and say, 'We don't need Michael Jackson.'"

King, a nine-term Republican representative from New York's Third Congressional District, said the media has "disgraced itself," noting that there are people dying everyday.

"There are men and women dying today in Afghanistan. Let's give them the credit they deserve," he added.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) - Angry at Rep. Peter King's sharp criticism of Michael Jackson, a fan of the late pop icon is trying to raise money to defeat the nine-term Republican from New York in 2010.

"This guy was a pervert, he was a child molester, he was a pedophile," King said about Jackson in a video posted on YouTube.

As of 6:40 p.m. ET, 13 donors had contributed $305 through the online fundraising Web site ActBlue. The unnamed organizer of the effort said the donations would be forwarded to the Democratic nominee for the seat.

"Peter King ought to let Jackson rest in peace, and focus on the needs of his constituents," the organizer wrote on the Web site. "As we mourn the loss of an American legend, political grandstanding is not what we need right now!"