Congressman punished for racist remarks

Jessica Lu, Social Media Director|January 21, 2019

Gage Skidmore

NO TOLERANCE. Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Mitt Romney were outraged by King’s comments and supported his removal from committees. The action taken against King stands in contrast to the tolerance towards the president’s inflammatory statements. “I’m glad that they are finally taking action after all of these years of Steve King slandering immigrants and Hispanics, but the president of the United States is also doing that and he just said something about Elizabeth Warren a few evenings ago that was also racially ugly and we haven’t heard a word of condemnation from anyone in the Republican Party about that,” said Texas representative Joaquin Castro to the Times.

Iowa representative Steve King was kicked out of the Judiciary and Agriculture Committees following his comments on white supremacy. In an interview with The New York Times, Steve King questioned why white supremacy was offensive.

This is not a one-time offense. Even Republican House minority leader Kevin McCarthy acknowledges that King has been known for making racist remarks in the past.

 In 2016, King defended the Republican Party’s racial homogeneity. “This ‘old white people’ business does get a little tired,” King said to Esquire’s Charlie Pierce.

 “I’d ask you to go back through history and figure out, where are these contributions that have been made by these other categories of people that you’re talking about, where did any other subgroup of people contribute more to civilization?”

 And in 2013, his interview with Newsmax concerning undocumented immigrants had previously sparked controversy.

 “For everyone who’s a valedictorian, there’s another 100 out there who weigh 130 pounds — and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert,” King said.

Currently, King has lost all his committee seats on a unanimous vote by the Republican Steering Committee. He will still be able to attend party meetings and remain in office. Meanwhile, King maintains that his words were misunderstood.

 “Leader McCarthy’s decision to remove me from committees is a political decision that ignores the truth,” he said to the Times.

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