Republican Congressman Peter King encouraged the president-elect to approve a mass surveillance program that keeps tabs on Muslims to combat terrorism.

King said Thursday the he urged Donald Trump to take a 'more leaning forward' approach to fighting Islamic terrorism.

'I suggested a program similar to what Commissioner Kelly did here in New York, and that we can’t worry about political correctness,' King, a New York representative said.

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Republican Congressman Peter King encouraged the president-elect to approve a mass surveillance program that keeps tabs on Muslims to combat terrorism

The spying program was 'very effective for stopping terrorism,' he claimed, and 'should be a model for the country.'

For half a decade the New York City Police Department spied on Muslims in mosques and their communities through a secret demographics unit authorized by Commissioner Ray Kelly that 'never' teed off an investigation, according to a court statement.

Muslim and civil liberties groups sued the city after Associated Press exposed the spying program in a series of articles in 2011.

A federal judge rejected a proposed settlement in a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union at the end of October because it didn't do enough to quell 'potential violations of the constitutional rights of those law-abiding Muslims and believers in Islam.'

The ACLU said Thursday it would take Trump to court, too, if he followed King's advice and instituted a national spying program.

'This would be unconstitutional and we would sue,' the organization said.

From the lobby of Trump Tower, King told reporters Thursday that he'd just had a 'very productive' meeting with Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence.

'The main issues I discussed were what we have to do to have the Justice Department and the FBI, be more leaning forward when it comes to investigating Islamic terrorism,' he said.

King, a past chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the government has to be 'on the look out obviously for attacks from overseas'. But it must also keep its eye on homegrown terrorism.

'It's the attacks like San Bernadino, Orlando, Boston marathon - they’re the ones that are going to be attempted to be carried out and we have to be more aggressive in trying to stop them,' he said.

He brought up the Kelly program in New York and said 'it was very aggressive and forward leaning when it came to trying to estimate where terrorism was going to be coming from.'

'Unfortunately Civil Liberties Union and the New York Times didn’t like' his surveillance programs, 'but they were very effective for stopping terrorism and they should be a model for the country.'

Trump used the New York City model as an example of good intelligence gathering in the wake of the Orlando, Florida, attack at Pulse nightclub.

'We had them in New York City, as an example, probably the best in the nation, and the new mayor just broke it all up and disbanded it, he thought it was inappropriate,' Trump said of NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio. 'That was unbelievable, that was one of the best of all systems. We need intelligence gathering like never before.'

King said Thursday the he urged Donald Trump to take a 'more leaning forward' approach to fighting Islamic terrorism

King said NY's spying program was 'very effective for stopping terrorism' and 'should be a model for the country.' But NYPD brass admitted in court that it never stopped an attack

Police recorded sermons and infiltrated student groups and kept databases on areas Muslims shopped, lived and worked.

Assistant chief Thomas Galati, the commanding officer of the NYPD intelligence division, said in a 2011 deposition that in a five-year period he had never known the intelligence unit, that was enabled by the CIA, to commence an investigation.

'I never made a lead from rhetoric that came from a demographics report, and I'm here since 2006,' he said, per a report in the Associated Press. 'I don't recall other ones prior to my arrival. Again, that's always a possibility. I am not aware of any.'

John Brennan, President Obama's CIA Director and his chief counterterrorism adviser before that, said he believed the police department's activities to be helpful and lawful, even as Attorney General Eric Holder said he found the reported behavior to be 'disturbing.'

Then-FBI Director Robert Mueller said in testimony before Congress, 'Ray Kelly has done a remarkable job in protecting New York. New York has been and will continue to be a terror target.'

Kelly retired from the force in 2013.

For half a decade the New York City Police Department spied on Muslims in mosques and their communities through a secret demographics unit authorized by Commissioner Ray Kelly. He retired in 2013

Trump announced his intent to nominate General John Kelly, a former Commander of U.S. Southern Command, to run the Department of Homeland Security on Monday.

'The American people voted in this election to stop terrorism, take back sovereignty at our borders, and put a stop to political correctness that for too long has dictated our approach to national security,' Kelly said in a statement accompanying the announcement.

'I will tackle those issues with a seriousness of purpose and a deep respect for our laws and Constitution.'

King said Thursday that he's not interested in a Trump administration job.

'No, no job. And I made that clear up front,' he said. 'Mainly he is going to have a very active agenda as far as Islamic terrorism and combating it, and I just wanted to give him some ideas I had as to what to do with the House and to tell him I would be there fighting for him on it because its so important.'

Trump initially said he'd bar non-American Muslims from entering the country temporarily to counter terrorism. He also said he'd create a registry to track Muslims - though his campaign later said he wouldn't.

'I want surveillance of certain mosques, OK?' Trump said at a Nov. 2015 rally. 'I want surveillance. And you know what? We've had it before, and we'll have it again.'