Steve King, the White Nationalist Party Representative who also happens to be the Iowa Representative in Congress had a really tough day on Monday. He continued to face intense blowback following a disastrous interview King gave to the New York Times questioning why white supremacy is considered offensive.
His actual quote:
“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?”
His major crime was not his abject racism, because that is pretty much part and parcel of the Republican party. His major crime was saying the quiet things out loud.
Fallout was swift. Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, suggested that King find “another line of work” and Senator Mitt Romney went even farther, saying he should quit. The House chose the most immediate course of action - stripping King of all committee seats, politically neutering him. King had been a member of the House Judiciary, Agriculture and Small Business committees and he was was also the top Republican on a Judiciary subcommittee. Welp, that is all gone.
I bet he did Nazi that coming.
(sorry, I had to do it)
In the above clip from Hardball, Michael Steele nails it:
"Well deserved. Long overdue, apply that standard to the guy sitting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue....The guy down at 1600, President Trump, declared himself a Nationalist. You can put "White" in front of it, you can put Baptist in front of it. Nationalism is Nationalism. Apply the same standard."
Twitter had thoughts:
McCarthy has done more to deal with Steve King in the first two weeks of the 116th Congress than Paul Ryan had done in years of repeated racist remarks https://t.co/KTZHbjk2DV
— Joe Perticone (@JoePerticone) January 15, 2019
King's response:
Will he resign? Probably not. But at least now he has been rendered a lot less effective.