As the midterm election draws near, Congressman Steve King‘s campaign is continuing its strange strategy of owning the libs by posting offensive memes on Facebook. On Wednesday, it shared the one seen above mocking Christine Blasey Ford, the California professor who alleges she was sexually assaulted by Brett Kavanaugh when they were teenagers, which implies she is the pawn in a Clinton revenge plot against the Supreme Court nominee.
The meme was posted three days after King spoke at an annual dinner hosted by the socially conservative Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition, where he dismissed Ford’s allegation against Kavanaugh as “character assassination,” calling it both false and unprovable, and warned that if senators believed her and declined to confirm him because of it, “no man will ever qualify for the Supreme Court again.”
Huffington Post reporter Christopher Mathias, who has been covering King’s campaign and the congressman’s affection for white nationalists and supremacists, inquired about the Facebook post, among other topics, for an article. An unnamed King staffer responded to his questions, sent via Facebook Messenger, with a series of snarky comments. In response, the campaign posted screenshots of the entire exchange, saying Mathias “perfectly exemplified the Left’s inability to grasp the concept of memes.”
“Do you think this is an appropriate meme for a congressional campaign to be sharing?” Mathias asked. “Considering it’s about an allegation of sexual assault?”
“The humor of that meme is pointed at the absurdity of the Left, nothing more,” the staffer replied. “Our page content is definitely not for people who struggle to have a sense of humor or irony. That being said, we’re definitely not going to litigate every meme with you.”
When Mathias questioned how the meme was pointing out the left’s absurdity, the staffer responded, “Lol c’mon man…it’s obviously alluding to the Left manipulating the opposition against Kavanaugh’s nomination.”
After Mathias’ article was published, the King staffer added a comment on the post that said “UPDATE” with three laughing emojis and a link to it.
Mathias began the conversation by asking if King would agree to a debate with his Democratic rival, J.D. Scholten (King himself previously suggested he wouldn’t, saying that “there’s not a clear division on the issues,” before a staffer contradicted him on Facebook, commenting, “Everyone already knows where the two candidates stand on the issues, so no debate is needed”). The staffer replied, “Nah,” adding that Scholten was “way down in the polls and everyone already knows where the two candidates stand on the issues” and disputing a recent poll showing the Democrat down just 6 points. “Spoiler alert: King is gonna handily,” the staffer said, including an emoji of a smiley face wearing sunglasses. In response to someone who commented that he had just donated to Scholten after seeing the post, the staffer said, “Fixed it for you: ‘Just flushed my money down the drain.'”
Asked how the King campaign felt about the congressman retweeting British neo-Nazi Mark Collett and white nationalists, and about his praise for the xenophobic, far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders, the staffer said: “Haha nice try, but those questions will need to be posed to the congressman directly. We just post dank memes and campaign updates.”
The staffer would not disclose their name, telling Mathias to attribute their statements to “the amazing Team King, of course” and including a “recent group photo” of the Power Rangers. Many suspect the staffer is either (or both) King’s son Jeff or daughter-in-law Lindsay, whom the congressman has paid more than $800,000 in campaign contributions since 2004.
After posting the meme mocking Ford, the King campaign has posted more.
One is a meme of Democrats shoving Ford out of an SUV into the street after Kavanaugh’s confirmation, suggesting again that she is merely being used by the party to hijack the nomination (she came forward of her own accord after reporters discovered her identity when news of a confidential letter she’d sent Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein leaked).
Another shows Hillary Clinton wearing Groucho glasses, in disguise as the “second Kavanaugh victim” (which the King campaign posted after two other women had already come forward with allegations against Kavanaugh).
The campaign also posted a screenshot of a tweet from Mark Dice, a right-wing conspiracy theorist who believes 9/11 was an inside job. The tweet included a quote published by Politico from an ex-boyfriend of one accuser questioning her credibility. (There are also serious unanswered questions about the ex’s credibility.)
