Steve King: Trump Right That Political Correctness Hinders Terrorism Response

FILE - In this Feb. 10, 2011 file photo, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa speaks in Washington. West and two other high-profile House conservatives are facing opponents who insist that their views are too extreme, have tricki... FILE - In this Feb. 10, 2011 file photo, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa speaks in Washington. West and two other high-profile House conservatives are facing opponents who insist that their views are too extreme, have trickier paths to re-election next month. GOP House candidate, Allen West of Florida, King and Joe Walsh of Illinois are all embroiled in tough and expensive races that are drawing plenty of spending by friends and foes from around the country. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File) MORE LESS

Although many Republican lawmakers have sought to distance themselves from Donald Trump over his rhetoric following the deadly Orlando, Florida, shooting, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) on Wednesday morning expressed support for numerous ideas the presumptive Republican presidential nominee has floated.

“If the election were today I would vote for Donald Trump. And I think he’s laid out some good policies that we ought to embrace, one of them is immigration policy,” King said on CNN’s “New Day.” “I’ve heard him modify his policy on not bringing anymore Muslims in the United States, suggesting instead closer to Ted Cruz’s position, which is let’s suspend immigration from terrorist sponsoring countries, at least until we get a handle on this. I think that’s a prudent statement.”

King also said that “political correctness” was keeping the United States from responding to and preventing terrorist attacks, a view shared by Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).

“What about the neighbors? What about the people that should have been watching this? They’re intimidated by political correctness,” the Republican congressman said on CNN.

When co-host Chris Cuomo asked King to clarify what he meant by that, King said that people who interacted with the suspected Orlando shooter, Omar Mateen, were “suppressed” because “they thought it was criticism because he was a Muslim.”

“We had an opportunity to engage and we were suppressed because of the political correctness,” King later added. “That’s something Donald Trump has got this right, that if we are suppressed with political correctness to the point where we don’t see something and say something out of fear of being criticized of being some kind of bigot, then America is not as safe as if we had freedom of speech and freedom of conscience.”

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  1. Well, there’s evidence that he’s right. Political correctness has kept us from going after Steve King.

  2. Avatar for tao tao says:

    Evidently King missed President Obama’s little talk about Trump. The one where he called Republicans on their talking point bull jive. The party of No! is going to have to find another way to justify their lack of action. Name calling ain’t cutting it anymore.

  3. Republicans are tried of “political correctness”? Well how about this: The republicans are too p**** to stand up to the NRA

  4. Put him on the VP short list.

  5. That damned political correctness is what keeps us from violating the “political” norms contained in the Bill of Rights. If we would just be willing to suspend those pesky rules everything would be fine. But you know why we can’t…freedom.

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