During a speech from the House floor on Friday, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) attempted to clarify what he meant when he was quoted in The New York Times asking when “white nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization” language became “offensive.”
Stumbling through an explanation, 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.
“That’s off this article and that’s the substance of this heartburn that seems to be churning across the media and America today,” he said after reading his direct quote in the Times. “So I look at that and I think, ‘Well, what was that conversation?’ It was about how those words got plugged into our dialogue, not when the words became offensive, which is what the technical interpretation is, how did that language become offensive. It’s how did that offensive language get injected into our political dialogue? Who does that? How does it get done? How do they get by with laying labels like this on people?”
King’s second public statement on the intentions of his quote comes as several of King’s Republican colleagues — like Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) — speak out against the congressman’s racist comments, which were on par with other anti-immigrant and white-supremacist-tinged remarks he’s made in the past.
King claims NYT quote was taken out of context pic.twitter.com/xMdqsqadED
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) January 11, 2019
So Stevie you know that reporters tape these interviews? Are you calling for the Times to release the tapes?
NYT reporter roll that big befuddled racist Congressman’s interview tape!
Hey Steve, you know that reporters generally record this shit? Sounds like you just gave them permission to release the actual recording. Lol.
It’s difficult to translate his “explanation” into coherent English, but I tried anyway.
My best effort:
His complaint sounded like “why is ‘white supremacist’ an offensive term now?” when taken out of context by the NYT.
His in-context complaint is that "white supremacists have sads, because people who call them ‘white supremacists’ believe that ‘white supremacist’ is a negative, offensive label.
[502 is my least favorite number at the moment]
OK then Steve , what about the rest of the Racist screeds over the years on tape and the Congressional record
Those out of “context” too?
ALL his words or just the LATEST hateful BS he spews? Honestly Steve…