Steve King Couldn't Go 48 Hours Without Doubling Down on Bigotry

From Esquire

Steve King is pitching a bigoted no-hitter this week, with back-to-back public comments-and a doubling-down on the first ones in between-that indicate the Iowa congressman maybe, just maybe, has problems with people of color. Today, he popped up on a Des Moines talk radio show to warn of a sinister future where white people are no longer the majority group in America. He had some consolation for his fellow travelers, though: Before that happens, America's black and Hispanic populations "will be fighting each other."

King's rhetoric also follows the bizarre, increasingly widespread logic that anyone who talks about race is The Real Racist, "driving wedges" by acknowledging that people of different backgrounds have different experiences in America. Meanwhile, King says in the future we will "end up with people that are at each other's throats," but that only people of color will engage in violence.

King didn't take the weekend off, either. He tweeted some full-throated praise for Geert Wilders, a white nationalist politician out of the Netherlands, and used some interesting language in the process:

King doubled down on the comments on CNN Monday: "You cannot rebuild your civilization with somebody else's babies," he told Chris Cuomo.

Throughout the week, some have expressed shock that a sitting member of Congress could speak this way. But King's record is long, and it bends towards rank bigotry. Just this summer, at the Republican National Convention, he declared on national television that he couldn't think of an instance of non-white people contributing to civilization:

Before that, he was spotted with a Confederate flag on his desk. (More than 3,000 Iowans died fighting in the Civil War-for the Union. Clearly history is less of a concern than "civilization.") And before that, he had this to say about the DREAMers, undocumented immigrants who were brought here as children:

Seems about right coming from a man who's spent his entire career referring to human beings as "deportables."

King doesn't just use rhetoric, of course. He favors policies, like harsher illegal immigration penalties or private prisons or both at once, which disproportionately impact people of color. So don't be shocked by his latest remarks. While King might be trying out some new riffs, these songs fit perfectly on his greatest hits album-one that already had a home in the Grand Old Party well before anyone named Trump showed up.

You Might Also Like

• 9 Mustache Styles to Try This Movember

• 6 New Ways to Shave Like Your Dad

• Here Are 15 Funny Grocery Store Signs That Will Hopefully Amuse You