{"id":197201,"date":"2019-01-10T19:29:36","date_gmt":"2019-01-11T00:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=197201"},"modified":"2019-01-10T19:29:36","modified_gmt":"2019-01-11T00:29:36","slug":"republicans-slam-rep-king-for-what-they-call-racist-remarks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/01\/10\/republicans-slam-rep-king-for-what-they-call-racist-remarks\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans slam Rep. King for what they call racist remarks"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rep. Steve King of Iowa was quoted in The New York Times saying, \u201cWhite nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization \u2014 how did that language become offensive?\u201d (File Photo By US House Office of Photography\/Wikimedia commons, Public Domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 House Republicans on Thursday criticized a fellow GOP lawmaker for making what they said were \u201cracist\u201d comments.<\/p>\n

Rep. Steve King of Iowa was quoted in The New York Times saying, \u201cWhite nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization \u2014 how did that language become offensive?\u201d<\/p>\n

The comment drew a denunciation from members of House Republican leadership.<\/p>\n

Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the No. 3 Republican, said King’s remarks were \u201cabhorrent and racist and should have no place in our national discourse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another Republican, Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, tweeted, \u201cThis is an embrace of racism, and it has no place in Congress or anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

King later issued a statement saying he is neither a white nationalist nor a white supremacist.<\/p>\n

\u201cI reject those labels and the evil ideology that they define. Further, I condemn anyone that supports this evil and bigoted ideology which saw in its ultimate expression the systematic murder of 6 million innocent Jewish lives,\u201d he said. \u201cUnder any fair political definition, I am simply a Nationalist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 House Republican, also weighed in.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s offensive to try to legitimize those terms. I think it’s important that he rejected that kind of evil, because that’s what it is, it’s evil ideology,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In 2014, Scalise apologized after he was found to have addressed a white supremacist group in 2002 founded by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. Scalise said he didn’t know of the group’s racial views.<\/p>\n

It’s not the first time some Republicans have denounced King, nor the first time King has said his intent is to defend \u201cWestern civilization.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies,\u201d he tweeted in 2017. Then he doubled down on CNN, telling the network, \u201cI’d like to see an America that’s just so homogeneous that we look a lot the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

King’s standing in the Republican Party was imperiled even before his latest remarks. Just ahead of last year’s midterm elections, the chairman of the House GOP’s campaign arm issued an extraordinary public denunciation of him.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongressman Steve King’s recent comments, actions, and retweets are completely inappropriate,\u201d tweeted Ohio Rep. Steve Stivers, then the chairman of the National Republican Campaign Committee. \u201cWe must stand up against white supremacy and hate in all forms, and I strongly condemn this behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the criticism, King narrowly won re-election in November. But he’s already facing a challenge from within his own party in the next election.<\/p>\n

Randy Feenstra, a Republican state senator, announced Wednesday that he plans to run against King in 2020. King has represented the district since 2013.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 House Republicans on Thursday criticized a fellow GOP lawmaker for making what they said were \u201cracist\u201d comments. Rep. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":197202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-197201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-laurie-kellman","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}