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Steve King questioned if there would be people left on Earth without 'rape and incest.' Here's his most disturbing comments
Steve King questioned if there would be people left on Earth without 'rape and incest.' Here's his most disturbing comments
Joseph Zeballos-RoigAug 16, 2019, 02:18 IST
In this June 8, 2018, file photo, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, at a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington.J. Scott Applewhite, File via AP
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Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa, a controversial lawmaker who's used white supremacist rhetoric, questioned on Wednesday whether there would be people left on earth without "rape or incest," provoking a bipartisan avalanche of criticism.
"What if we went back through all the family trees and just pulled those people out that were products of rape or incest? Would there be any population of the world left if we did that?" King asked at an Iowa breakfast.
Both Democrats and Republicans swiftly condemned the remarks and at least one House Republican called on him to resign.
King has said that Western societies are threatened by nonwhite immigrants. Here are some of King's most disturbing comments.
Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa questioned on Wednesday whether there would be people left on earth without "rape or incest," provoking a bipartisan avalanche of criticism. It was first reported by the Des Moines Register.
"What if we went back through all the family trees and just pulled those people out that were products of rape or incest? Would there be any population of the world left if we did that?" King asked at the Republican event in Iowa. "Considering all the wars and all the rapes and pillages that's taken place, and whatever happened to culture after society, I know that I can't certify that I'm not a product of that.
Both Democrats and Republicans swiftly condemned the remarks and at least one House Republican called on him to resign.
Yet the disturbing remarks highlight King's long history of incendiary and often racist comments throughout his sixteen years in Congress. Earlier this year, King was stripped of his committee assignments after he asked why white supremacy was offensive in an interview with The New York Times. He's refused to resign.
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Here are some of King's most troubling comments to date.
In a 2009 speech railing against the Affordable Care Act, King said its contraceptive coverage threatened the birthrate of white Americans. "Preventing babies being born is not medicine. That’s not constructive to our culture and our civilization. If we let our birthrate get down below the replacement rate, we’re a dying civilization," King said.
King strongly opposed granting a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, or children who grew up in the US but were brought illegally. In a 2013 speech, he said there's a drug dealer for each academically gifted Dreamer. "For everyone who's a valedictorian, there's another 100 out there that weigh 130 pounds and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert," he said.
During the 2016 Republican National Convention, King claimed that nonwhite peoples have not contributed to civilization as much as whites. "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 you are talking about. Where did any other subgroup of people contribute more to civilization?” King said.
King has also found an ally in the far-right, anti-Islamic Dutch politician Geert Wilders. He endorsed Wilders in 2017, tweeting, "Wilders understands that culture and demographics are our destiny. We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies."
King also claimed in 2017 that white civilization was being wiped out as a result of the migrant crisis in Europe and defended his Wilders tweet. "We’re watching as Western civilization is shrinking in the face of the massive, epic migration that is pouring into Europe. That’s the core of that tweet. They’re importing a different culture, a different civilization — and that culture and civilization, the imported one, rejects the host culture."
King has fought back against his critics who call him a white nationalist — by suggesting the term is not that offensive. Earlier this year, he told the New York Times: “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive? Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?”
