Rep. Steve King Image by Getty Image

Rep. Steve King made an off-color joke at a town hall-style meeting about Uighurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group that has been detained by the Chinese government, The New York Times reported.

“The Uighurs, the Muslims in China — a million of them — they’re being put into camps, and they’re taking their children away, and raising them, and then they’re sterilizing the women,” the Iowa congressman said. He then attempted to explain the mass internment, telling the crowd that in Beijing, Uighurs are being forced to eat pork, which goes against their religious dietary laws.

“That’s actually the only part of that that I agree with, is, everybody ought to eat pork,” he added. “If we have a shortage of bacon you can’t be happy.”

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King has a long history with making racist and anti-immigration comments. Last year alone, he endorsed a white nationalist for mayor of Toronto, had an interview with members of a far-right Austrian political party with historic Nazi ties and retweeted a British neo-Nazi, which he refused to apologize for.

He has laid low since January, after he asked The New York Times when terms like “white supremacist” and “white nationalist” became offensive. This led the Republican Party to kick him off congressional committees, though some fellow GOP House members have lobbied to bring him back.

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

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