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Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro called for Congress to condemn Representative Steve King after the Iowa congressman questioned why phrases like “white nationalist” and “white supremacist” were offensive.

“Congress ought to vote to censure him, and then he ought to be primaried ASAP,” Shapiro tweeted on Thursday.

Shapiro, editor-in-chief of The Daily Wire, then asked his followers to donate to the campaign of Iowa State Senator Randy Feenstra, who hopes to unseat King in 2020.

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Donate to his primary challenger, Randy Feenstra, here. I plan on doing so. https://t.co/0RJIs63svi

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) January 10, 2019

Shapiro had previously defended King from charges of racism in 2017 after the congressman tweeted “We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.” In an article on his website The Daily Wire, Shapiro defended King’s subsequent claim that he was making a point about culture and not race. But Shapiro updated the article on Thursday to write that he had given “far too generous an interpretation of King’s words.”

Shapiro’s appeal was in response to a story in The New York Times, in which King said he didn’t consider himself a racist before questioning when terms like “white nationalist” and “white supremacist” became repugnant.

“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” King said. “Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?”

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

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