Republican Steve King, an outspoken white nationalist who represents Iowa’s 4th Congressional District that includes Ames, took to Facebook Thursday to demand that the liberal media “apoligize” for its “relentless” and “completely uncalled for” attacks against him.
King didn’t specify what, precisely, he wanted the media to apoligize for, but the congressman has been harshly criticized by the national media, Democrats, and members of his own party over the past month since tweeting, “We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies” — an endorsement of Geert Wilders, a far-right Islamophobic politician who at the time was in a close race to be the next prime minister of the Netherlands (he lost, to the relief of moderates and progressives across Europe).
The tweet caught the attention of an approving David Duke, a former imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, who responded to the tweet by encouraging his followers to move to Iowa:
Just in case you were thinking about moving -> sanity reigns supreme in Iowa's 4th congressional district.#MakeAmericaGreatAgain https://t.co/RRjTzAzlKw
— David Duke (@DrDavidDuke) March 12, 2017
On Friday, King attempted to clarify his remarks on Iowa Press, claiming he was taken out of context because of Twitter’s 140-character limit on tweets. If he’d had more room to type, King said, he would have added “unless we first adopt them, bring them into our homes, love them, and raise them as our own.” (King supported President Trump’s travel ban that targeted Muslims in nations including Syria, whose devastating civil war has led to a refugee crisis.)
“This is about 60 milion abortions in this country since Roe v. Wade, and it’s about a fertility rate — a total fertility rate — that’s below the replacement rate,” King continued. “And as a message to the candidate for the prime minister of the Netherlands, Mr. Geert Wilders, a friend — and we’ve worked on a good number of issues together — and their fertility rate is 1.4 babies per woman. It takes 2.15 to break even. And, meanwhile, their embassy was surrounded by protesting Turks in Ankara, Turkey, and there are 5 million of them that are being called upon by Prime Minister [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan of Turkey to demonstrate in the streets of Europe and vote the interests of Turkey.”
How does @SteveKingIA explain his recent tweets regarding "somebody else's babies"? His response to @okayhenderson on tonight's show pic.twitter.com/MDFgwCgJtl
— Iowa Press (@IowaPress) April 14, 2017
On behalf of the liberal media, the Informer apoligizes to King.
