Julian Castro responds to Steve King ‘Hispanic’ comments: ‘He does what he usually does’

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro on Thursday responded to criticism from Rep. Steve King, saying the Iowa Republican “does what he usually does.”

King accused Castro and his twin brother Joaquin Castro last week of taking “Spanish lessons to qualify as retroactive Hispanics.”

{mosads}Julián Castro said King’s comments were him doing “what he usually does, he throws in this bigotry.”

“What I say to Steve King is: we’ll see you November 6th.”

He added that King chose to call him and his brother out because he was about to campaign for King’s midterm opponent, J.D. Scholten (D).

“[Scholten] actually has a chance of winning,” Julián Castro said. “Politicians, when they know that they’re in trouble, what they to do is try and distract folks.”

He told Rolling Stone on Tuesday that he is “likely” to run for president in 2020.

King has received criticism for several similar comments in the past year, including refusing to apologize for retweeting a prominent British neo-Nazi, saying he doesn’t want Muslims working at meat plants in his district, and indicating that he doesn’t “agree that profiling is wrong.”