King: Punishment For ‘Demographics Are Destiny’ Tweet Would Be ‘Ridiculous’

FILE - In this Feb. 10, 2011 file photo, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa speaks in Washington. Republican-leaning areas in states vital to President Barack Obama's re-election prospects are drawing top-tier Democratic congre... FILE - In this Feb. 10, 2011 file photo, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa speaks in Washington. Republican-leaning areas in states vital to President Barack Obama's re-election prospects are drawing top-tier Democratic congressional candidates who, even if they lose, could help turn out the vote and boost Obama's chances of winning a second term. The best example of the trend is former Iowa first lady Christie Vilsack, challenging GOP Rep. Steve King in Iowa's 4th Congressional District. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File) MORE LESS
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Rep. Steve King (R-IA) dismissed as “ridiculous” the prospect of losing a committee assignment as a result of his saying that “demographics are our destiny,” and “We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies,” among other things.

“That’s a ridiculous proposition,” King told Politico. “Nancy Pelosi doesn’t run that.”

King is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution & Civil Justice. House Minority Leader Pelosi (D-CA) advocated on Twitter for King to be stripped of that role as punishment for his comments.

Responding to his tweet, which also endorsed the anti-Muslim Dutch politician Geert Wilders, King said Monday that he “meant exactly what I said.”

“This western civilization is a superior civilization and we want to share it with everybody,” he told CNN’s Chris Cuomo.

On Tuesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) distanced himself from King’s statement, saying “I’d like to think––and I haven’t spoken to Steve about this––I’d like to think that he misspoke and it wasn’t really meant the way that that sounds, and hopefully he’s clarified that.”

And White House press secretary Sean Spicer said of King’s comments, referring to President Trump, ”this is not a point of view he shares.”

”He believes he is the president for all Americans,” Spicer said.

King told Politico Thursday that his critics weren’t distinguishing between his endorsement of western civilization and the white race.

“The people that interpreted that are just ridiculous,” he said. “I spoke to civilization and [if] they don’t know the difference between civilization and race, then they need to go back to school.”

However, King himself has blurred the lines on several occasions.

“He’s adding up Hispanics and blacks into what he predicts will be in greater number than whites in America,” King said Monday, referring to Univision journalist Jorge Ramos. “I will predict that Hispanics and the blacks will be fighting each other before that happens.”

In the same interview, King recommended listeners read the 1973 novel “The Camp of The Saints,” a book referenced frequently by White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, in which an “armada” of hundreds of thousands of Indian refugees land in France. One Republican commentator described the book to the Huffington Post as “shockingly racist.”

At the 2016 Republican National Convention, King said, during a discussion of diversity in the Republican Party: ”I would ask you to go back through history and figure out where are these contributions that have been made by these other categories of people that you are talking about, where did any other subgroup of people contribute more to civilization?”

“Than white people?” MSNBC host Chris Hayes asked.

“Than—than western civilization itself that’s rooted in western Europe, eastern Europe and the United States of America, and every place where christianity settled the world,” King said. “That’s all of western civilization.”

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  1. Avatar for cd cd says:

    ”He believes he is the president for all Americans,” Spicer said.

    BULLSHIT

    this preznit knows he is the preznit for a minority of American voters, and he continually proves it through actions and words

    he has never shown any grace what so ever to those that did not vote for him, we who did not vote for him are not true Americans in his opinion, just listen to his words

  2. King’s district is full old white rural folk, those people feel that their way of life is heading for extinction, as the only babies that they get to see are the children of mexican farm and packing plant workers. So whatever King says is just a reflection of what their constituents feel and of course he will not get punished for that.

  3. ShOuLd reAd turnEr diaries. ItS basically all reaDy happening. ExcePt withOut guns

  4. Ironic that King is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution & Civil Justice since he is clearly uninformed about either the Constitution or Civil Justice.

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