Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), on Thursday said he is seeking reelection despite widespread outrage over comments he made about white supremacy.
In an interview on Iowa Public Television, the lawmaker said he plans to seek a 10th term in Congress, and blamed “cyber bullying” and “dishonest” reporting for the backlash to his comments.
“I have nothing to apologize for,” he said. “Each thing starts out with some formerly credible organization that launches this and then we have this phenomenon that America is not ready for, and that’s this cyber bullying that unleashes, that’s there creating a firestorm.”
{mosads}King went on to say he agrees with President Trump’s criticism of The New York Times as “dishonest.”
“If you just hold these publications to what is true, there is no story whatsoever,” he said.
King confirmed on the show that he will run for reelection, according to the Des Moines Register.
“Don’t let the elitists in this country, the power brokers in this country, tell you who’s going to represent you in the United States Congress,” he urged voters.
King was stripped of his congressional committee assignments after questioning how the terms “white nationalist” and “white supremacist” became offensive.
“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” he said to the Times in an interview last month.
The Iowa Republican has since claimed that the newspaper misquoted him.
Earlier this week, King asked supporters to pray for his committee assignments to be restored by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
King has a long history of making controversial comments about race and immigration. But the January interview with the Times prompted swift backlash from both parties and escalated to the House passing a resolution to formally reject white supremacy, a resolution that King voted for.
Iowa State Sen. Randy Feenstra (R) has announced that he will run against King in the GOP primary for the seat. And Iowa’s Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds said she won’t endorse King in 2020.