IS IOWA’S STEVE KING, A WHITE NATIONALIST?

…Caricature of Iowa’s Steve King, as seen by many in the national press

Republican rebuke of King, just stopped short of saying King promoted white supremacy

Republican Rep. Steve King, who for years has been identified as being aligned with white nationalists, is in the midst of a difficult and loud re-election race in Iowa.

At least one poll has shown his Democratic challenger, J.D. Scholten, within striking distance, although Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight poll still gives King a nearly 83% chance of winning.

The growing attention to King’s affiliation with far-right groups and figures, including a Nazi sympathizer, has offered up the possibility of a donor boycott.  But Iowa still seems to love their white nationalist representative.

Due to King's views, a handful of corporations, including the chip company, Intel and the dairy company Land O’ Lakes, they have announced that they will no longer support King financially.

Even the Republican Party  (RNCC) issued a sharp rebuke of King that stopped just short of saying he promoted white supremacy.

There was a confrontation last week after King was harshly questioned about whether his racial views on immigration shared any similarities with those of Robert Bowers.  Bowers was the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter who killed 11 Jews, and who had said he was motivated by a fear of American “invaders” being responsible for "his people being slaughtered.”

The video of the confrontation between King and his questioner at a press conference was circulated widely after being captured by the political blog, Iowa Starting Line.

A questioner in the room read statements from Bowers and King, then said he thought King shared the shooter’s ideology regarding immigration.

“No, don’t you do that,” King said, cutting the man off. “Do not associate me with that shooter. I knew you were an ambusher when you walked in the room. But there’s no basis for that.”

The man continued trying to ask a question about what distinguishes King’s ideology.  But the congressman continued to cut him off.

“You’re done. You crossed the line. It’s not tolerable to accuse me to be associated with a guy that shot 11 people in Pittsburgh,” King said. “This is over, if you don’t stop talking.”

It was not immediately clear who the man who confronted King was, or whether he was there representing any political groups.

King spokesman, John Kennedy said that Iowans were calling in after seeing the video to say they agreed with the congressman.  However, he didn't say just how many Iowan's had called.  King, a long-timer in Iowa politics, was formerly in the Iowa state congress, and he became a US Representative in 2002.  He has been well supported by the highly conservative Iowans for the past 16 years.  Today however, many Iowans are questioning his politics.

In an email to The Washington Post, KIng's spokesman Kennedy lambasted “Leftist Media Lies,” about King , although he did not respond when asked to give specific examples.

But King himself had also mentioned “Leftist Media Lies” as he took to Twitter to share Iowa Starting Line’s video of the exchange.

King continues to come under fire in recent days after The Post reported that he met with a ultra-right party with historical Nazi ties in Austria, while King was on a trip to Europe.  The same trip that had been financed by a Holocaust Memorial Group.

It has been recorded that Rep. King had met with those far-right Austrians on that trip.  Many people are asking , “How could this US Representative actually visit and defend a far-right organization after he was being funded by a Holocaust group...?

At a forum in Iowa last week, King still defended the Austrian political group.  He did so by saying that the party had purged former Nazis more than 50 years ago, except for one youthful affiliation, (whatever that Meant….?)  This far-right party is now led by Heinz-Christian Strache, who by the way, was an active member of a neo-Nazi group as a youth.

King spoke about touring Holocaust sites in Poland before he had flown to Vienna, an experience he said was "moving".  (Really?  I have also visited the German concentration camp, Dachau, but ‘moving’ is not the word I would use.)

In his past statements, King has assailed immigrants, retweeted Nazi sympathizers, and as the caricature above says, King actually did say: “We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies”.   Many have interpreted this as an echo of the white nationalists, and it has drawn even more scrutiny since the Pittsburgh shooting.

Last month, King endorsed Faith Goldy, a white nationalist candidate for the Canadian Toronto Mayor position who appeared on a neo-Nazi podcast during the deadly Charlottesville rally.  King later publicly recited a white supremacist slogan, which has also drawn an uproar.

King obviously blamed The Post for all of the attention, saying that “the entire fiasco that you’ve seen here in the state for the last three days was based on the report last week about the Austria trip”.

King’s has also has had a long relationship with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and King was co-chair of Cruz’s presidential campaign in Iowa.  Cruz has since also come under question as the senator faces a tight reelection race, as Texas is one of the country’s most racially diverse states. 

Cruz called King on Wednesday to express his support, regardless of King’s apparent white nationalist position, but now donors and some party officials are moving away from both Cruz and King, this is according to the Bloomberg News.

How Iowan’s and Texan’s can support politicians like King & Cruz is beyond my understanding, but then, I'm not from Iowa or Texas.

Copyright G. Ater  2018