Steve King Speaks at First Town Hall Since House Rebuke for Comments on White Supremacy

Congressman Steve King once again defended himself in his first town hall since being formally rebuked by his own colleagues.

To recap: King was denounced by many Republicans after a New York Times interview quoting him saying, “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” The House GOP stripped him of his committee assignments and the House rebuked his comments in passing a resolution condemning white nationalism and white supremacy. King voted for it as well and said he was taken out of context.

At today’s town hall, King addressed the issue at the start:

“It is stunning and astonishing to me that four words in a New York Times quote can outweigh 20-some years of public service, 20-some years of giving you my word every day, and not one soul has stood up and said that I’ve ever lied to you or misrepresented anything or given it to you in any spin that’s anything other than what I believe to be the objective truth.”

He defended himself again, invoked Justice Brett Kavanaugh at one point, and said people are trying to “control” language.

King at one point admitted he’s made mistakes, but he said his mistake was that “I should have never done an interview with the New York Times.”

CNN correspondent Sara Sidner reported that the crowd was “very happy to see him, for the most part.”

You can watch CNN’s report on King’s remarks above, and you can watch his full town hall here (the relevant part about the Times starts around the 7:10 mark).

[image via screengrab]