Steve King's latest racist remarks may actually cost him

And they may not.

January 10

In a Thursday interview with The New York Times, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) decried the demonization of the term “white supremacist,” and wondered why it had become deemed to be offensive in the first place. King first claimed that he supported immigrants who came to America legally and assimilated into the culture—because, he said, maintaining a white European “culture of America” is more important than maintaining racial homogeneity. “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization—how did that language become offensive?” King added.

[...]

King’s extremist ideology has ostracized him from some in the Republican Party, but has been embraced by President Trump and is reflected in his agenda. Early on in Trump’s term, the president invited King to the Oval Office, where he boasted of having raised more money for the congressman’s campaigns than anyone else, King recalled in an interview with the Times. “Yes, Mr. President,” King replied. “But I market-tested your immigration policy for 14 years, and that ought to be worth something.”

  Daily Beast

January 11

Ben Shapiro, a professional right-wing opinion-spewer, took a moment to update a 2017 blog post on King with a new take on Thursday. While Shapiro originally argued that it was not racist for King to tweet, on the subject of European immigration, “We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies,” he now feels differently. It is “not as implausible” anymore that King’s words were racist, Shapiro wrote.

The National Review was more explicit. “Dump Steve King,” read a headline on a piece from the site’s editors, who said the congressman “tars all conservatives with his irresponsibility.” Another right-wing site, The Daily Caller, shied away from calling King out but noted that he “has a long history of racially insensitive and anti-immigrant comments.”

[...]

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) called King’s initial language “reckless, wrong” and “abhorrent and racist,” respectively.

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) described King’s first comments as “offensive,” but praised his clarifying statement. “I think it was important that he rejected that kind of evil,” Scalise said.

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) suggested in a Washington Post op-ed published Friday that King lacks “some pretty common knowledge” and suggested that people like the Iowa congressman gave all Republicans a bad name. Later, however, the senator backed away from calling King a racist on Fox News and said King should not resign.

  HuffPo

On Friday, King tried to defend himself on the floor of the House of Representatives, but his defense was weak at best and probably did nothing to reverse the image of him as Capitol Hill’s resident racist.

King began his remarks by saying, “I made a freshman mistake a week ago today when I took a call from a reporter from the New York Times.” What followed was a hodge-podge of blames that he placed on everybody else, before saying that he’s simply an “American nationalist.”

[...]

Within the past few years, he endorsed white nationalist Faith Goldy in her unsuccessful race for Toronto Mayor. He met with an Austrian party with loose ties to the Third Reich and he tweeted “we can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.”

King barely squeaked out a victory in 2018 after his remarks started to come under the spotlight and it’s possible that his political career won’t survive the 2020 election where he already has a Republican opponent.

  IJR

On the House floor, King said the quote was taken out of context. King argued he was saying terms like white supremacist, white nationalist and Nazi were "almost always unjustly labeling otherwise innocent people."

"It was about how those words got plugged into our dialogue, not when the words became offensive, which is what the technical interpretation of it is," King said. "It's how did that offensive language get injected into our political dialogue."

[...]

Fellow conservatives have been condemning King for months, even prior to the 2018 midterm election where King narrowly beat Democrat challenger J.D. Scholten.

Last October, U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers, the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, disavowed King in a statement on Twitter. Three major U.S. companies also announced they will no longer donate campaign money to King.

Now, King faces two primary challengers, Iowa Sen. Randy Feenstra and Bret Richards.

  Des Moines Register

During a speech from the House floor on Friday, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) attempted to clarify what he meant .

[...]

“That’s off this article and that’s the substance of this heartburn that seems to be churning across the media and America today,” he said after reading his direct quote in the Times. “So I look at that and I think, ‘Well, what was that conversation?’ It was about how those words got plugged into our dialogue, not when the words became offensive, which is what the technical interpretation is, how did that language become offensive. It’s how did that offensive language get injected into our political dialogue? Who does that? How does it get done? How do they get by with laying labels like this on people?”

King’s second public statement on the intentions of his quote comes as several of King’s Republican colleagues — like Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) — speak out against the congressman’s racist comments, which were on par with other anti-immigrant and white-supremacist-tinged remarks he’s made in the past.

  TPM

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said in an address on the House floor Friday he made a "freshman mistake" in agreeing to an interview with The New York Times in which he asked when the terms "white nationalist" and "white supremacist" became offensive.

King, who has come under fierce criticism from leaders of his own party over his latest inflammatory comments about race, didn't offer a direct apology for the comments, but said he regretted the "heartburn" for his district and the Congress.

"One phrase in that long article has created an unnecessary controversy. That was my mistake," King said.

[...]

King sought to make clear that he rejects ideologies like white nationalism.

"I reject that ideology. I defend American civilization, which is an essential component of western civilization," King said.

[...]

"I want to make one thing abundantly clear; I reject those labels and the evil ideology that they define. Further, I condemn anyone that supports this evil and bigoted ideology which saw in its ultimate expression the systematic murder of 6 million innocent Jewish lives," he said.

It's unclear whether King's words on the House floor will end the tornado surrounding him.

[...]

Earlier this week, Iowa state Sen. Randy Feenstra (R) announced that he will challenge King for the GOP nomination in the district.

"Today, Iowa’s 4th District doesn’t have a voice in Washington, because our current representative’s caustic nature has left us without a seat at the table,” Feenstra said in a statement. “We don’t need any more sideshows or distractions.”

  The Hill

Sen. Tim Scott, the lone black GOP senator, wrote in an opinion piece Friday that the GOP should not be silent over King.

"Some in our party wonder why Republicans are constantly accused of racism — it is because of our silence when things like this are said," Scott wrote in The Washington Post.

[...]

Asked if he was worried that GOP leaders would strip him from committee assignments, King told CNN, "I've heard nothing like that -- why would anybody do that?" He also said he has no concerns that the National Republican Congressional Committee won't endorse him in his primary, saying, "They never have -- that's nothing new."

And the Iowa Republican said he's not worried that his comments -- when he told The New York Times, "White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?" -- will affect his chances at re-election. He said he has not heard push back from local Republican leaders in Iowa.

"No one has contacted me with concerns, these folks know me," he told reporters.

[...]

The three top Republicans -- House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise and GOP Conference Chair Liz Cheney -- all sharply rebuked King over his comments in separate written statements on Thursday.

[...]

Asked if he would support King in his 2020 primary bid, Scalise said, "I haven't even been focusing on the politics of what's going to happen later next year. I mean obviously we're going to have a lot of time for politics."

[...]

"I don't know," said Rep. Tom Cole, Republican of Oklahoma, when asked if King should be punished. "I think leadership has pushed back, and I know he's put out a clarifying statement."

[...]

Indeed, while some Republicans repudiated his remarks, saying they sharply condemn white supremacists, influential GOP lawmakers were uncertain what to do about King.

The most senior Republican in the Senate, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, said this about King's remarks Friday: "I think that any claim of white supremacy is wrong and I detest it."

But Grassley was non-committal about whether he'd back his fellow Iowa Republican again for re-election.

"Very seldom do I get involved in primaries and right now you're two years away from elections," Grassley told CNN. "Ask me maybe in a year and a half or something."

[...]

Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, said Friday he disagrees "vehemently with the comments" and they were "not helpful to what we're trying to do" when asked if King should be punished by the GOP.

"We don't usually get involved in primaries," Emmer told CNN when asked if the party committee would endorse him. Asked if that meant the NRCC also would not support him in a general election should he win the nomination for a 10th term in 2020, Emmer said, "I think it's way too early. ... You're talking two years from now. I mean we don't typically get involved in primaries and that's about all I have to say."

[...]

Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio is considering offering a formal resolution censuring King for the latest in a history of racially tinged remarks. The most senior black leader in Congress, House Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina, told CNN he supports that move. "You'd have to ask him about that," Clyburn said when asked if he views King as a racist. "I do think he has racial tendencies."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNN Friday she had yet to see King's remarks when asked if she would back a censure resolution. "I have not seen what he said, but he makes terrible comments all the time, so this is not anything new."

But the head of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Karen Bass, said Friday that Democrats should let Republicans punish King and avoid taking up the matter because, she said, it would easily be dismissed as a partisan issue.

[...]

"His party needs to absolutely do something definitive. I'm not so sure it should be the House, because if it's the House, then they'll blame it on the Democrats."

Bass added, "He's got a long history of this."

  CNN

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) suggested Friday that the House will take some punitive action against Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who’s under fire from both parties for recent comments defending the “white supremacist” label.

“We’ll see what we do about Steve King, but nonetheless, nothing is shocking anymore, right? The new normal around here is to praise white supremacists and nationalism as something that shouldn’t be shunned,” Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol.

[...]

“He’s said terrible things,” Pelosi said of King. “Terrible things have been said by other people in this administration, as well.”

  The Hill

Welcome to the era of Trump, making America great again.

January 12

When I turned on CNN this morning, Victor Blackwell was interviewing one of the members and asking if they would support censuring King. It’s a subject which has been getting a lot of play this week, particularly among Democrats, and the new Speaker of the House hasn’t ruled it out yet.

[...]

The House has censured members 21 times over the course of the nation’s history. (The last one being Charlie Rangel for repeated tax law violations.) The vast majority were for instances of breaking House rules, violations of the law and even physical assaults on other members.

[...]

There have been a few others, so clearly the precedent exists for censuring members of Congress over things they’ve said.

But is that really the standard we need in a country which prioritizes freedom of speech and has enshrined it in the Bill of Rights, even if the language is widely determined to be offensive? Surely there are better ways to handle this if the vast majority of members want to see King punished for his speech. He can be removed from his choice committee seats or even ejected from the GOP caucus if they find his comments grievous enough.

But in the end, the real judges of King’s actions and statements are the voters in his district.

  Hot Air

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.