GOP condemnation rises over Rep. Steve King's white supremacy comment; House to vote on rebuke
WASHINGTON – The House was scheduled to vote Tuesday on a formal rebuke of Rep. Steve King, who has received bipartisan condemnation for his comments in which he questioned why phrases like "white supremacist" are offensive.
In a rare move, House Democratic leaders are coalescing behind a vote of disapproval put forth by Rep. James Clyburn, the No. 3 House Democrat and an African American, a senior Democratic aide said Monday. The vote is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. It is not clear yet if Republicans will support the measure.
However, a handful of prominent Republicans said King should leave Congress and top House Republicans voted Monday not to assign King any committees in the new Congress. King was previously on the Judiciary, Agriculture and Small Business committees. The Iowa Republican had been the chairman of the immigration and border security subcommittee on the Judiciary Committee when Republicans controlled the House.
"The House Republicans denounce his language. We do not believe in his language and we’ve decided that he will not serve on any" committees, GOP Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters Tuesday. He said it was up to the Iowa Republican whether he should resign.
But Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the No. 3 House Republican went further, echoing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, "I think that he should find another line of work," she said. GOP Sen. Mitt Romney has also called on King to resign.
“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization – how did that language become offensive?” King said in an interview with The New York Times last week. “Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?”
The Clyburn resolution, titled "Rejecting White nationalism and White supremacy," invoked King’s comments and condemned such words as “hateful expressions of intolerance that are contradictory to the values that define the people of the United States.”
King remained defiant, accusing the GOP's McCarthy of making an "unprecedented assault" on his recent to free speech. He also suggested his comments had been misinterpreted.
"Rep. King’s statements are unwelcome and unworthy of his elected position. If he doesn’t understand why ‘white supremacy’ is offensive, he should find another line of work," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday.
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the only black Republican in the Senate, wrote a Washington Post op-ed titled: "Why are Republicans accused of racism? Because we’re silent on things like this."
Democrats won control of the House of Representatives, 235-199, with the help of a coalition of women, African Americans and Hispanics. They ushered in the most diverse class yet breaking records for the number of women and minorities. At the same time the House GOP became less diverse, seeing a decline in the number of women and the loss of the sole African American Republican woman in the House, Mia Love of Utah.
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer applauded Republican leaders for their “strong” actions against King Tuesday. “I think they did the right thing,’’ he said. “I think they’re very concerned about their party being perceived as a Steve King party.”
There were some disagreements among Democrats over how far to go in taking action over King's comments.
Hoyer said he will vote for Clyburn’s resolution, but the party is still discussing the censure option, acknowledging that it could open a Pandora’s box. “It is a big deal to be censured,” he said.
Two Democratic lawmakers have introduced resolutions that would censure King, a more formal practice that requires him to come to the well of the House to hear his the statements of disapproval. It is not clear if those will also be voted on, however, one resolution introduced by Rep. Bobby Rush, an African American, is considered "privileged" so it is set to come up this week and Democratic leadership will be forced to decide to let it go through or table it. Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio has also offered a more narrow censure resolution.
Rush said Tuesday he was “disappointed that the Republican’s response to King is much stronger than the Democratic response to King.”
He said he can’t vote for Clyburn’s resolution because it’s not strong enough. Minimally, King should be censured, and if he continues, he should be expelled from the Congress, he said.
“Steve King has made a career out of being a racist and he needs to be called out as such,” he said.
Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, the first Republican to join Rep. Tim Ryan’s censure resolution and a member of the steering committee that stripped King of his committees, told USA TODAY he tried to have a “man to man” conversation with King when he “made stupid comments” about immigrants in 2013.
“My point was that when you say stupid things, it splashes on all of us,” Joyce tsaid. “He said, well, he gets good publicity out of it. I said, ‘well you need to think about other people here because it’s not right. I can’t believe you say these things, but it’s not right and you shouldn’t say those things.’
“He knows what he’s doing and he continues to do it and he should be held accountable for it," Joyce said.
A resolution of disapproval is rare but not unprecedented. In 2009, the last time Democrats had control, they passed a resolution of disapproval directed at Rep. Joe Wilson for yelling "You lie!" when then-President Barack Obama was speaking.
Trump Monday said "I haven't been following" the controversy surrounding King.
On Tuesday, McCarthy finished his press conference and walked out of the room without answering a reporter's question about whether the president shared his views on King.
Contributing: Nicole Gaudiano, Deborah Berry
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Rep. Steve King gets a GOP challenger, Iowa state Sen. Randy Feenstra
In Donald Trump era, a GOP leader looks to recast his party's image with black voters
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: GOP condemnation rises over Rep. Steve King's white supremacy comment; House to vote on rebuke
