GOP conference chair: Steve King’s comments were ‘abhorrent’ and ‘racist’

Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) on Thursday denounced fellow GOP Rep. Steve King (Iowa) after he questioned if terms such as “white supremacist” were offensive, calling King’s remarks “abhorrent” and “racist.”

“These comments are abhorrent and racist and should have no place in our national discourse,” Cheney, the House GOP conference chairwoman, tweeted shortly after King’s remarks surfaced. 

These comments are abhorrent and racist and should have no place in our national discourse. Steve King asks how terms ‘white nationalist’ and ‘white supremacist’ became offensive | TheHill https://t.co/yL23avpNFB

— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) January 10, 2019

King, who has served in the House since 2003, wondered why terms like “white supremacist” and “white nationalist” were considered offensive in an interview with The New York Times published on Thursday. 

{mosads}“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” King asked. “Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?”

The comments came as part of an expansive report from the Times on King’s hard-line views on immigration. They prompted outrage, including from a range of Republican lawmakers and conservative commentators. 

Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) called the comments an “embrace of racism” that has “no place in Congress.” 

Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-Mich.) said King’s “embrace of these terms and philosophies are fundamentally wrong and offensive and have no place in Congress, our nation, or anywhere.”

King issued a statement on his interview with the Times, asserting that he rejects the “white supremacist” and “white nationalism” labels. 

“Today, the New York Times is suggesting that I am an advocate for white nationalism and white supremacy,” he said in a statement shared on Twitter. “I want to make one thing abundantly clear; I reject those labels and the evil ideology that they define.”

He added that he considers himself “simply a nationalist.”

My statement on the New York Times article. pic.twitter.com/IjBHgZYgRD

— Steve King (@SteveKingIA) January 10, 2019

King has faced scrutiny in the past over comments he’s made about race and immigration, including once saying that diversity is not America’s strength. 

Last year, he defended his association with a far-right Austrian group with links to Nazis, saying that “if they were in America … they would be Republicans.”

King defeated his Democratic challenger, J.D. Scholten, by 3 percentage points in November’s midterm elections. 

But he will face new obstacles in the 2020 election. Iowa state Sen. Randy Feenstra (R) announced on Wednesday that he would primary King for Iowa’s 4th Congressional District in 2020. 

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) said Thursday that she would not endorse King in his next race, telling a local TV station that the last election “was a wake-up call for it to be that close.”