Steve King applauded at first Iowa event since House rebuke
Source: Associated Press
Steve King applauded at first Iowa event since House rebuke
By SCOTT McFETRIDGE
January 26, 2019
PRIMGHAR, Iowa (AP) Constituents applauded Republican Rep. Steve King on Saturday at the Iowa congressmans first public event since being rebuked by his House colleagues over racist comments he had made to a newspaper earlier this month.
King told the roughly 75 people who showed up for the first of 39 planned town hall meetings in his sprawling district that he doesnt adhere to a white supremacist ideology and he repeated his assertion that hes not racist.
The nine-term House member caused an uproar after he was quoted in a New York Times story saying, White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization how did that language become offensive? King claimed his comments were taken out of context, but the House voted 424-1 to rebuke him, with King himself voting in favor of the resolution, and Republican leaders denied him any committee assignments.
Addressing what he called the elephant in the room in his opening remarks at Saturdays event, King expressed frustration that his comments about white nationalism and white supremacy in the Times interview led to even his fellow Republicans disowning him.
It is stunning and astonishing to me that four words in a New York Times quote can outweigh 20-some years of public service, 20-some years of giving you my word every day, King said. And not one soul has stood up and said Ive ever lied to you or misrepresented anything. Not one soul has stood up and said Steve King has ever acted in a racist fashion, that he ever discriminated against anybody.
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