Republicans punish King for racist remarks

The Republican House steering committee has blocked Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, from all committee assignments for two years for lamenting to the media that white supremacy and white nationalism had become offensive terms. In announcing the committee’s decision Monday night, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said King’s remarks were “beneath the dignity of the party of Lincoln and the United States.” King, who was elected to his ninth term in November, served on the Agriculture, Small Business, and Judiciary committees in the last Congress and had chaired the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice. House Democrats moved to formally punish King. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., introduced a resolution of disapproval late Monday, and two other Democratic representatives are introducing separate censure actions.

King suggested on the House floor on Friday that he has been misunderstood, explaining that the interview with The New York Times was in part a “discussion of other terms that have been used, almost always unjustly labeling otherwise innocent people.”

Randy Feenstra, a Republican state senator in Iowa who plans to run against King in the state’s 2020 GOP primary, said Monday, “Sadly, today, the voters and conservative values of our district have lost their seat at the table because of Congressman King’s caustic behavior.”