Steve King, the Iowa congressman who has long outraged Democrats and liberals with racist remarks and demeaning insults about immigrants, is now facing extraordinary blowback from within his own party following an interview in The New York Times in which he questioned why white supremacy is considered offensive. Mr. King, 69, who narrowly won re-election in November, has made racist comments for more than a decade that party leaders have mostly ignored. But his statements published Thursday in The Times went further than ever, triggering a barrage of public criticism from top House Republicans as well as a former G.O.P. presidential candidate and conservatives in the media. In the interview, which focused on how Mr. King’s once-fringe immigration views set the stage for the border wall and white identity politics pursued by President Trump, the congressman said: “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?”Reflecting on the record number of black people and women in the new Congress, he added: “You could look over there and think the Democratic Party is no country for white men.”

Source: New York Times January 11, 2019 23:41 UTC