Censure Representative Steve King (R-Iowa)
For years, Rep. Steve King has been an embarrassment to those of us in Iowa's 4th Congressional District who do not share his views. Not only does he not represent me with his racist, white supremacist stands, but he also has done little to represent the interests of his constituents in his position as our Representative.
We have been aware of his abhorrent racism for a long time and so it is heartening to see him finally called out by his Republican colleagues in the U.S. House. It has taken far too long for his racism to be addressed but now it is getting national attention.
In light of Rep. Steve King’s reckless and consistent comments in support of white supremacy, House Republicans have begun to openly criticize and condemn their colleague’s blatant racist ideology – however, this is not enough. We must stand up against him in the strongest possible way. I believe that his words, actions, and attitudes justify censure by the U.S. House of Representatives.
For years now, Rep. Steve King has used his position as a US Representative to embolden white nationalists in the US and promote white supremacy across the world – he cannot be allowed to continue.
While the rise of Trump has emboldened many white nationalists throughout our country, the violent ideology of white supremacy has been slowly brewing in the background for decades – and like the movement itself, Steve King and his support of white supremacy predates the current political trend; here’s just a brief history of it:
- Rep. Steve King asked when did ‘white supremacist’ become offensive? In an interview with the New York Times, King asked “‘White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?’” Mr. King said. “‘Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?’” [New York Times, 1/10/19]
- King met with & gave an interview to members of a far-right Austrian party with historical Nazi-ties, In October 2018, King defended his meeting with Austria’s Freedom Party, a group founded by a former Nazi SS officer and whose current leader was active in neo-Nazi circles. According the Hill, “King made comments lamenting the ‘decline’ of Western civilization due to immigration in an August interview with Austria’s Freedom Party...asking: ‘What does this diversity bring that we don’t already have?’” [The Washington Post, 10/25/2018;The Hill, 10/29/2018; Unzensuriert.at, 9/2/2018]
- Steve King called immigrants coming the US as “dirt” in recorded conversation, Before the 2018 midterm election, Steve King was recorded by the The Weekly Standard referring to immigrants as “dirt.” The Hill reports, “At the meeting with constituents last Monday, before the election, King was riffing with people about the jalapeños he would need to grow at his home garden for his ‘patented pheasant noodle soup’ recipe. ‘I guess I’m going to have to go get some dirt from Mexico to grow the next batch,’ King is heard saying in the audio. ‘Trust me, it’s already on its way,’ a female constituent says in the tape as the gathering laughs. ‘Well, yeah, there’s plenty of dirt. And it’s coming from the West Coast, too,’ King joked. ‘And a lot of other places, besides. This is the most dirt we’ve ever seen.’” [The Hill, 11/12/2018]
- Rep. King endorsed a white nationalist mayoral candidate in Canada. Before the Toronto Mayoral election in October 2018, Steve King took to Twitter to endorse known white nationalist candidate Faith Goldy calling her “an excellent candidate.” According to the Washington Post, “Goldy was fired from her job at the Rebel after she appeared on a podcast produced by the neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer during last year’s white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville. She has also questioned whether immigration is contributing to a ‘white genocide’ in Canada and earlier this year promoted a 1936 book by a Romanian fascist who denounced ‘the Jewish menace’ and “the parasitism of the Jews.’” [The Washington Post, 10/18/18]
- King openly displayed a Confederate flag on his desk. Giving an interview to Sioux City’s KCAU TV, Steve King was shown displaying his desk’s Confederate flag adornment. [Iowa Starting Line, 7/10/2016]
- Steve King retweeted a known Nazi sympathizer. In 2018, Steve King retweeted prominent Nazi sympathizer & self-admitted admirer of Adolf Hitler, Mark Collett. The retweet included King’s own words saying “Europe is waking up...Will America...in time?.” Collet was was the subject of a 2002 documentary on Channel 4 in the UK titled “Young, Nazi and Proud. [The New York Times, 6/13/2018]
- In 2013, Steve King was denounced for calling most undocumented immigrants “drug mules.” Steve King told the conservative outlet Newsmax, “that for every young illegal immigrant who becomes a valedictorian, ‘there’s another 100 out there that — they weigh 130 pounds, and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.’” [Washington Post, 7/24/2013]
Opposing white supremacy matters. The message spread by white nationalists is not only dangerous and hateful, it is plainly anti-American and should be offensive to anyone who claims to truly believe in what this country stands for.
If the House of Representatives, not just the Republicans within it, is truly committed to standing up for American values and combating the threat of white supremacy in the United States, Rep. Steve King of Iowa must be censured by his peers.
