Steve King Raising Money Off Controversy From White Supremacy Comments

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) questions witnesses during a House Judiciary Committee hearing concerning the oversight of the U.S. refugee admissions program. Image by Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Representative Steve King is garnering sympathy in the form of donations from supporters as he faces backlash for questioning when terms like “white nationalist” and “white supremacy” became so offensive, the Des Moines Register reported.
“The unhinged left has teamed up with Republican ‘NeverTrumpers’ and is pulling out all the stops to destroy me,” King wrote in a campaign email.
The Iowa Republican also accused The New York Times, which published his quote about white supremacy, and other elements of the “rabid leftist media” for coming after him for his support of President Trump and hardline views of immigration.
King will use the donations to support his reelection bid. He already has two opponents in the Republican Party primary.
King has long been controversial for his incendiary rhetoric, especially around matters of race and immigration. But he has come under special scrutiny in the past year.
While in Europe on a junket last year sponsored by a Polish Holocaust-memorial organization, he conducted an interview with a far-right Austrian party with Nazi ties, which he told that “Western civilization is on the decline.”
King also accused billionaire liberal megadonor George Soros, who is Jewish, of being behind the so-called “Great Replacement” — a common white nationalist trope accusing Jews of purposefully supporting immigration to dilute the white population in America.
He went on to endorse a white nationalist candidate for Toronto mayor who was running with the aim of preventing “white genocide.” King also refused to apologize for retweeting a British neo-Nazi.
Religious communities in Iowa, including two Jewish leaders in his district, condemned King in October, after a gunman killed 11 at prayer in a Pittsburgh synagogue. They published a letter in the Des Moines Register calling the congressman “an enthusiastic crusader for the same types of abhorrent beliefs held by the Pittsburgh shooter.” Some corporate donors, such as Intel and Land O’ Lakes, were inspired to withdraw their funding.
But it was for his most recent controversial comment, placed 700 words down the Times’ article, that had many up in arms: “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?”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called for King find to “another line of work,” and Senator Mitt Romney said King should “step aside.” Two members of Congress filed motions to formally punish King, and the House removed him from his committee seats.
In a shocking move, Democratic congressional leaders blocked an effort to censure King on Wednesday, out of concern that it would set a precedent to punish Democrats for incendiary language spoken outside the House floor, The Washington Post reported.
“I think we have spoken, and we have spoken on both sides of the aisle, that this is unacceptable rhetoric and behavior,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said.
Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 2
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward ‘Another Jewish warrior’: Fine wins special election for U.S. House seat
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
-
Opinion In Trump’s war against campus antisemitism, hate the tactics but don’t ignore the problem
-
Yiddish כ׳בענק נאָך די וועלטלעכע ייִדן וואָס האָבן אָפּגעריכט אַ טראַדיציאָנעלן סדר Longing for those secular Jews who led a traditional seder
מײַן פֿעטער יונה האָט נישט געהיט שבת און כּשרות אָבער בײַם אָפּריכטן דעם סדר האָט ער געקלונגען ווי אַ פֿרומער ייִד
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.