In a speech last week on the U.S. House floor, Iowa Congressman Steve King said he never was quoted using or defending the term “white nationalist” until a New York Times article was released that ultimately led to the loss of his committee assignments.
An interview with WHO-TV’s Dave Price that aired October 21, 2018, however, tells a different story.
In the interview, conducted about two months before the New York Times’ January 10, 2019 piece, Price asked the 4th District congressman to provide his definition of a “white nationalist.”
“Well, I’m not sure of that,” King replied. “First of all, I think they have to be white, but then we’ve got Rachel Dolezal that didn’t have to be black to be black. It is a derogatory term today — I wouldn’t have thought so a year or two or three ago — but today they use it in a derogatory term and it implies that you are a racist.”
Just before that question, King specifically mentioned “white nationalist” in reference to one of the terms the Des Moines Register used to describe Donald Trump (the relevant section starts at around 2:15 in the first clip).
“There’s this police action going on that once someone has been labeled by the left, then we’re all supposed to step away from them and shun them for whatever they might have said,” King said. “The Des Moines Register, for example, said that of the President of the United States in their endorsement of all Democrats here the other day, that he is a racist, he is a minsogynst, he’s divisive, he has committed – what was it – crudities, and I think there’s one more adjective I’ve forgotten – oh, yes – a white nationalist.”
His response to Price implied he did not believe the “white nationalist” phrase was offensive at some point, and it closely mirrors what Trip Gabriel of the New York Times would quote him saying a few months later.
“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” King said in the Times story.
Furthermore, King’s initial defense of himself on the House floor in January referred more to a “phrase” that was “taken out of context.”
It was not until March of this year that his staff put together a full memo that attempted to prove that King must have been misquoted. They claimed a Lexus-Nexis search showed that King had not used the term “white nationalist” until a Christian Science Monitor interview just before the Times piece that provided different context.
“The quote in the CSM is the FIRST DOCUMENTED INSTANCE of Steve King ever using the phrase ‘white nationalist,'” the King memo reads.
However, this is simply false. Not only did King clearly use the term “white nationalist” in his interview with Price, he also expressed disappointment that the phrase was being used today in a derogatory manner. A TV interview like that, where there wasn’t a full transcription online, may not have shown up in Lexus-Nexis search, but you can watch him say it.
Thursday night, King spoke for 30 minutes on the floor of the House of Representatives to defend himself, alleging he was misquoted by the Times reporter.
He referenced the “fact check” compiled in March by his staff, complete with charts highlighting the 276 times he was quoted in an eight-year period using the phrase “Western civilization.”
“Never, not one time was I quoted using either one of those terms that identify the odious ideologies in all of the Lexis-Nexis searches that were there,” King said Thursday, referencing the terms white nationalism and white supremacy. “It makes it implausible that, unless those terms were fed to me by the New York Times, it’s very unlikely that they would have ever been uttered in an interview.”
Though King is using his latest and most lasting controversy to deny support for racist ideologies, he has a well documented history of offensive behavior, as explored by the Des Moines Register in a 2018 article.
Among the highlights: displaying a Confederate flag on his desk in Congress; reportedly meeting with a political group in Europe founded by a former Nazi SS officer; questioning whether racial minorities have contributed to the advancement of civilization; and suggesting Muslim children prevented the restoration of “our civilization.”
By Elizabeth Meyer
Screenshot from WHO-TV’s The Insiders
Posted 7/29/19
4 Comments on "The Video That Disproves Steve King’s “White Nationalist” Defense"
Kudos to you for doing some solid journalism here.
Steve King can try to run for re-election, but he can’t hide from this video.
Elizabeth,
Does Iowa have a problem with the white men that made the state? It sure seems like this newspaper is funded by Sheldon Adelson or the likud party the more I read the articles! I came here for a great article about Admiral Joe Sestak and have been horrified by the communistic opinions on many of these pieces. Anyone using the term “white supremacy” is a communist as this term was invented by Israel Singer the communist. I’m horrified an Iowa new source has stooped to such jingoistic Journalism.
President Drumpf has signed a Noahide Law executive order and has let out prisoners such as Shlomo Rubishkin, who was a criminal running child prostitution, and slavery at his Iowa meat processing plant! Yet you’re throwing Mr. King under the bus and not exposing Drumpfs 100% backing of Chabbad Lubavitchers that seek to rule this nation? Are you biased Elizabeth Myers? There have been five things that stink to high heaven under , his illegal embassy move for the “jewISH” state, his decree saying international law is null and void, so israel owns part of Syria according to him, Secretary of State Tillerson’s revelations that Jared Kushner was negotiating with the Mexicans illegally behind his back(for whom would be a good question for a journalist to ask,) the bomb threats against my JCC here in Phoenix and all over the country which came from israel, and his letting out of prison a man that if this was a legitimate news service would be the first question you asked every candidate. Instead nothing but silence about the (((white))) traitors in Iowa and the White House, and attacks against Admiral Sestak and Representative King.
I left israel to eacape this type of blatant racist reporting, and now even reading an “ Iowa “ newspaper I am exposed to it. This is surreal.
Anyone that’s made it this far, checkout the amazing book by an American who was hoodwinked like myself. It is titled “An American Jew in Racist, Marxist israel.” By a man who was murdered for writing the truth, the great Jack Bernstein. It will illuminate the Drumpf Presidency in a way that has probably escaped your attention, due to the monolithic control of our newspapers by disloyal “dual citizens.”
Of all that I’m still able to read, it seems only Haaretz, Alison Weir’s ifamericaknew.org, Ron Unz’s Unz.com website, and gilad.co.uk, as well as the starting line when they focus on progression for all humanity are the only decent ones left!
To whom it may concern,
The censorship on this site is worse than in israel.