Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King loves being extremely racist. Hell, he even fundraises off of the fact that he’s an overt bigot, and insists he has “nothing to apologize for.” So, it should hardly be a shock that, once again, King managed to shoehorn in some good ol’ fashioned racism into a recent town hall appearance, where he insisted that the (predominantly poor, African American) victims of Hurricane Katrina were simply looking for a government handout after the flooding, while his (presumably white) Iowa constituents were more prone to helping each other out of the goodness of their corn-fed midwestern hearts.
“Here’s what FEMA tells me,” King said during the live-streamed event in Charter Oak, IA. “We go to a place like New Orleans, and everybody’s looking around saying, ‘Who’s going to help me? Who’s going to help me?’”
He continued:
We go to a place like Iowa, and we go, we go see, knock on the door at, say, I’ll make up a name, John’s place, and say, ‘John, you got water in your basement, we can write you a check, we can help you.’ And John will say, ‘Well, wait a minute, let me get my boots. It’s Joe that needs help. Let’s go down to his place and help him.
Suffice it to say, people in Louisiana were not amused by King’s latest racist dalliance. Governor John Bel Edwards said King’s comments were “disgusting and disheartening,” while Democratic Rep. Cedric Richmond cut the bullshit entirely, and called King a “white supremacist.”
Even Republican and allegedly self-proclaimed “David Duke without the baggage” Rep. Steve Scalise condemned King’s remarks, telling CNN:
His comments about Katrina victims are absurd and offensive, and are a complete contradiction to the strength and resilience the people of New Orleans demonstrated to the entire nation in the wake of the total devastation they experienced.
Back in January, when King was rebuked by the House for racist comments, Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois said he “reserved the right” to bring up a formal censure vote against King if the Iowa congressman “utters one more type of racist commentary.” We’ve reached out to Rush’s office to see if he does, in fact, plan to do that, and will update with any response we receive.
We’ve also reached out to Rep. King’s office for comment on his latest remarks, and to see if the congressman has a response to those who’ve pushed back on his statement. But in the meantime, it’s safe to say that when you’ve lost Steve Scalise, it’s probably time to rethink your whole game plan.
Update, 4:36 p.m. ET: Late Friday afternoon, Rep. Rush’s office requested that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi advance his previous call to censure King.
“He is a virulent racist who has repeatedly insulted the American people—and minorities specifically—with his hatred,” Rush said in a letter to Pelosi. “The House of Representatives must repudiate this behavior and we must do so forcefully.”