Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) added to the number of Republican colleagues condemning Rep. Steve King’s (R-IA) white supremacy comments in a Saturday morning tweet.
“They are offensive and racist — and not representative of our state of Iowa,” Ernst tweeted.
I condemn Rep. Steve King’s comments on white supremacy; they are offensive and racist – and not representative of our state of Iowa. We are a great nation and this divisiveness is hurting everyone. We cannot continue down this path if we want to continue to be a great nation.
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) January 12, 2019
King told the New York Times that he doesn’t understand when language including “white nationalist” and “white supremacist” became offensive. He also told the Times that immigrant assimilation is more important than race since the “culture of America” is “based on values brought to the United States by whites from Europe.”
During a speech from the House floor on Friday, King claimed the quote was taken out of context of the broader conversation he said he was having when he made the “freshman mistake” of taking a call from a Times reporter.
You know it’s a low bar when Joni Ernst makes news for uttering words of minimal human decency.
And those words (very big words) were so surprising! We previously had no idea that Steve King was a racist white supremacist piece of shit. We just learned this just now. And that’s those of us who have never met him or conversed with him. I’m sure people who have actually spent time with him and campaigned with him were even more stunned from out of the blue.
The GOP lost badly in Iowa in the midterms, I guess Joni got the message that pandering to loudmouth racists is no longer a winning strategy.
Offensive and racist. To people of color.
Otherwise, perfectly acceptable to the typical Iowa demographic that elected King, Ernst, and Grasshole…
Sounds like Joni’s scared of losing her seat next year.