Ben Shapiro Condemns Steve King For Asking Why ‘White Supremacist’ Is Offensive

Image by Wikimedia

By Alyssa Fisher January 10, 2019

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.

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 fisher@forward.com, or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO