Rep. Steve King is a white man, which means that he has rarely, if ever, been told no. He doesn’t know what no feels like. It’s not only foreign to his makeup, his ears don’t even understand it. Historically, white men have had trouble with being told no. So that’s probably why the Iowa representative ran out here and compared himself to Jesus Christ after Congress told him he couldn’t be on congressional committees anymore because he can’t stop spewing racist, white nationalist rhetoric.
“For all that I’ve been through—and it seems even strange for me to say it—but I am at a certain peace, and it is because of a lot of prayers for me,” King said at a town hall in Cherokee, Iowa, CNN reports.
“And, when I have to step down to the floor of the House of Representatives, and look up at those 400-and-some accusers, you know we just passed through Easter and Christ’s passion, and I have better insight into what He went through for us partly because of that experience.”
From CNN:
The hours before Jesus’ crucifixion are referred to as Christ’s passion and reference the events — including torture and intense public shaming — that he went through before being nailed to the cross. For Christians, the Easter season is a time of remembrance of Jesus’ sacrifice, ultimately leading to his death and his resurrection from the dead on Easter Sunday.
I just got off the phone with Donald Trump, who wanted me to note that King is wacky AF and even a bridge too far for him.
Trump: “I mean I’m a white nationalist, but King is white nationalist-white nationalist.”
King most likely was referencing the fact that many congressional members, including several from his own party, have denounced King’s racist remarks and called for him to be stripped of his committee assignments.
King’s latest offensive was during an interview with the New York Times in January in which he questioned when the terms white nationalist or white supremacist became offensive.
“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization—how did that language become offensive?” he told the Times. “Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?”
This isn’t King’s first rodeo, as this is from another piece I wrote on him in November 2018:
He’s been a card-carrying white nationalist since he joined Iowa’s Fourth Congressional District in 2013 and his reward points are piling up with each consecutive year. He has not only doubled-down on his positions to “Make America White Again” but he’s confused when people don’t understand his openly white agenda. He’s spouted racist and incendiary rhetoric since being elected and why should that stop now?
On Monday, King joked that he hoped “Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor would ‘elope to Cuba’ so conservatives can take control of the country’s highest court,” HuffPost reports.
And this is from HuffPost:
King attacked Sotomayor and Kagan in 2015 over their rulings in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage. In September, he fiercely defended then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh against allegations of sexual misconduct. King’s comment on Monday appeared to indicate a hope that older, progressive-leaning justices might age off the court in time for President Donald Trump to appoint more justices like Kavanaugh.
King has a long history of making incendiary and bigoted comments. He recently drew backlash over an interview he gave to a far-right publication in Austria.
In the interview, King said he believed European cultures are superior to other cultures. He also expressed a belief that Europe and the United States are threatened by Muslim and Latino immigration.
“If we don’t defend Western civilization, then we will become subjugated by the people who are the enemies of faith, the enemies of justice,” King said.
The Republican has since lost a number of corporate donors, was condemned by the Anti-Defamation League and blasted by top House Republican Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio) for expressing white supremacist beliefs.
And then there was the time King compared immigrants to dirt. CNN points out that “he has previously retweeted a Nazi sympathizer and has sponsored a white nationalist fringe candidate for Toronto mayor.”
In March 2017, King tweeted, “We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies,” and later boasted that he “meant exactly what I said,” CNN reports.
And during an interview with a far-right Austrian publication in 2018, King suggested that besides food, what does diversity bring?
“What does this diversity bring that we don’t already have? Mexican food. Chinese food,” King said at the time. “Those things, well, that’s fine, but what does it bring that we don’t have that is worth the price?”
But King is a white man, which means that not only did he refuse to step down from Congress after being called out for his behavior and stripped of his committee assignments, but he announced in February he’ll run for re-election in 2020.
Oh and get this, King doesn’t even believe he’s said anything that he needs to apologize for.
“We know what the news media has done continuously,” King 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 cyberbullying that unleashes.”
So, yeah it sounds about white (man) that in order to receive the hood in the full KKK outfit, King had to compare himself to Jesus Christ, which reportedly unlocks the Stephen Miller-level of game play.