Rep. Steve King is well-known for his bigoted views on race and religion. Photo by
U.S. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) is at it again.
Just days after making xenophobic remarks about Muslim immigrants on Twitter, King hopped on the radio and suggested that African-Americans and Latinos will “be fighting themselves” before surpassing whites in the U.S. population.
The congressman’s latest off-putting comments came during a radio interview on Monday, March 13, when he responded to a question regarding Univision news anchor Jorge Ramos’ remarks to Fox News’ Tucker Carlson about whites becoming a majority-minority group in the U.S. by 2044, CNN reported. Ramos was essentially trying to make the point that the U.S. is indeed a multiracial country.
“Jorge Ramos’ stock in trade is identifying and trying to drive wedges between race,” King told radio host Jan Mickelson on Iowa’s 1040 WHO. “Race and ethnicity, I should say, to be more correct. When you start accentuating the differences, then you start ending up with people that are at each other’s throats.
“[Ramos is] adding up Hispanics and Blacks into what he predicts will be in greater number than whites in America,” he continued. “I will predict that Hispanics and the Blacks will be fighting each other before that happens.”
King made the disturbing prediction just days after posting a racist comment to Twitter suggesting that Muslim children were preventing “our civilization” from being restored.
“[Geert] Wilders understands that culture and demographics are our destiny,” the contested congressman wrote in response to a political cartoon depicting conservative Dutch politician Geert Wilder using his finger to plug a dam oozing with religious Muslim symbols. “We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.”
The comments sparked fiery backlash among Democrats and Independents but very few Republicans have come forward to denounce King’s outwardly racist and xenophobic rhetoric. Democratic strategist and former South Carolina legislator Bakari Sellers ripped into GOP leaders over their silence on the issue, saying, “You don’t have to be a superhero to call out racists.
“I think Steve King was racist a year ago, he’s racist today and he’ll be racist tomorrow,” Sellers said during an appearance on “CNN Tonight” with Don Lemon. “Somebody else’s baby? Those are Black and brown babies. … I mean, let’s just cut through the BS that he spewed. That language is very dangerous.
“I have no tolerance for his bigotry, I have no tolerance for his racism,” he added. “The Republican Party has a problem, and that man’s name is Steve King.”
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), the first Latina elected to the U.S. Senate, along with top Iowa newspaper The Des Moines Register, also have pushed back against the congressman’s offensive comments. The Iowa newspaper even went so far as to urge the GOP to oppose King’s reelection in 2018 following his remarks about “somebody else’s babies.”
King has since defended his comments, reiterating that, “We need to get our birth rates up or Europe will be entirely transformed within a half century or a little more.” He also went on to say he’d one day like to see America transform into a “homogeneous” society.
The congressman concluded Monday’s radio interview by asserting that Ramos and others were “celebrating” the success of a plan to make white Americans a majority-minority, then encouraged listeners to read the novel “The Camp of the Saints,” a xenophobic book about Europe being overtaken by immigrants.
