Steve King

{{hatnote|Not to be confused with the talented writer {{wpl|Stephen King}}}}
[[File:Steve King, official Congressional photo portrait.jpg|thumb|right|165px|"Black just will not do, even for the color of my suit!" (probably)]]{{Uspolitics}}
{{cquote|"[[White nationalist]], [[white supremacist]], [[Western civilization]] — how did that language become offensive?"|||Steve King<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/10/us/politics/steve-king-trump-immigration-wall.html Before Trump, Steve King Set the Agenda for the Wall and Anti-Immigrant Politics.] ''[[The New York Times]]'', 10 January 2019.</ref>}}
'''Steven Arnold "Pennywise" King ''' {{lived|1949}} was a [[Republican]] member of [[Congress]], a [[white nationalist]], and a [[fascist]] who represented [[Fun:Iowa|Iowa's]] fourth district whose views inspire so much horror in the hearts of others that you'd think he was a character created by {{wpl|Stephen King||.}} King has a long track record of [[racist]] comments.<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/31/steve-king-antisemitism-paul-ryan-anti-defamation-league</ref><ref>https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/03/12/rep-steve-king-warns-that-our-civilization-cant-be-restored-with-somebody-elses-babies</ref> To his (slight) credit, House Minority Leader [[Kevin McCarthy]] stripped King of all committee posts after this debacle.<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/14/steve-king-republicans-house-committees-white-nationalist?CMP=edit_2221</ref> He could be considered the only member of
Congress at the time to endorse white supremacists, but multiple others, such as [[Louie Gohmert]] and [[Matt Gaetz]], could also claim the title of white supremacist ally.<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/01/state-of-the-union-matt-gaetz-charles-johnson</ref>

==History of racism and white nationalism==
===Support for racial profiling===
{{main|Racial profiling}}
In 2010, King endorsed the practice of racial profiling:<ref>https://archive.ph/20120711122529/http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2010/06/15/king-racial-profiling-is-important-for-law-enforcement/</ref>
{{Quotebox|"Some claim that the Arizona law will bring about racial discrimination profiling. First let me say, Mr. Speaker, that profiling has always been an important component of legitimate law enforcement. If you can’t profile someone, you can't use those [[common sense]] indicators that are before your very eyes. Now, I think it's wrong to use racial profiling for the reasons of discriminating against people, but it's not wrong to use race or other indicators for the sake of identifying that are violating the law."}}

===White genocide conspiracy theory===
{{main|White genocide}}
King has openly subscribed to the white genocide conspiracy theory, and has stated "We can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies."<ref>https://archive.ph/20210225192258/https://twitter.com/SteveKingIA/status/840980755236999169</ref> In a later interview with [[Breitbart]] host Alex Marlow, King stated "We're watching as Western civilization is shrinking in the face of the massive, epic migration that's pouring into Europe."<ref>[https://www.breitbart.com/radio/2017/03/14/rep-steve-king-explains-controversial-tweet-streets-of-europe-burning-with-violent-unrest-from-mass-migration/ Steve King's Breitbart interview]</ref> In a [[CNN]] interview with Chris Cuomo, King clarified "I meant exactly what I said, and also said "I'd like to see an America that's just so homogeneous that we look a lot the same, from that perspective."<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3sV6NN5gqs</ref><ref>https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2017/03/13/steve-king-babies-tweet-intv-newday.cnn</ref><ref>https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/steve-king-republican-geert-wilders-tweet-wants-everyone-to-look-the-same-a7627216.html</ref>

===MSNBC appearance===
During [[MSNBC]]'s coverage of the 2016 Republican National Convention, King told Chris Hayes, "I'd ask you to go back in history and figure out where are these contributions that have been made by these other categories of people that you're talking about? Where did any other subgroup of people contribute more to civilization?"<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu-LBS_kpDQ</ref> It seems the {{wpl|Transmission_of_the_Greek_Classics|Arabic world's preserving and expanding on the knowledge of the classical world and passing it on to medieval Europe}} doesn't count. Nor, it would seem, would {{wpl|Arabic_numerals|Arabic numerals}} (which are actually Indian). Whiteys did make the codpiece though, which is far more useful than the crap the stinky Chinese trotted out like paper, {{wpl|Gunpowder#History_of_gunpowder|gunpowder}}, {{wpl|History of printing|printing}}, the {{wpl|compass|compass}}, or the {{wpl|seismometer}}. As for culinary and musical contributions by minorities? Please don't enjoy potatoes, corn, bananas, chocolate, tomatoes, or a cup of coffee again, and don't listen to a big deal of music.

===Xenophobia===
{{main|Xenophobia}}
In 2018, ''The Weekly Standard'' released a recording in which King said the following about immigrants:<ref>https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/11/12/steve-king-dared-conservative-outlet-release-audio-him-calling-immigrants-dirt-it-did/?utm_term=.5b36638087dd</ref>
{{Quotebox|"Well, yeah, there’s plenty of dirt. It's coming from the West Coast, too. And a lot of other places, besides. This is the most dirt we've ever seen."}}
Earlier in the recording, King quipped that he would have to get some "dirt from [[Mexico]]" to grow his new peppers. Funny that a representative from a farming state would have a problem with dirt. Does he think his constituents grow corn in hydroponics?

==Abortion, rape, incest==
In defending the idea of a [[Pro-life|total abortion ban]], King seemingly defended the idea of [[rape]] and [[incest]] because [[Bible|he thinks it happened in everyone's ancestry]].<ref>[https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2019/08/14/steve-king-abortion-rape-incest-westside-conservative-iowa-representative-birth-iowa-civilization/2007230001/ U.S. Rep. Steve King: If not for rape and incest, 'would there be any population left?'] by Robin Opsahl (Published 11:39 a.m. CT Aug. 14, 2019 | Updated 5:35 p.m. CT Aug. 14, 2019) ''Des Moines Register''.</ref>
{{cquote|What if we went back through all the family trees and just pulled out anyone who was a product of rape or incest? Would there be any population of the world left if we did that? … Considering all the wars and all the rapes and pillages that happened throughout all these different nations, I know that I can’t say that I was not a part of a product of that.}}
Presumably murder, robbery, and other crimes ''aren't so bad either'', since all that could be found in one's family background if you went far enough back.

==Endorsements of far-right politicians and candidates==
In 2017, King received widespread backlash after he endorsed [[Far right|far-right]] [[Populism|populist]] politician [[Geert Wilders]] and his [[Party for Freedom]] in the 2017 Dutch general election,<ref>https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39250251</ref> as well as [[Front National]] leader [[Marine Le Pen]] in the 2017 French presidential election.<ref>hhttps://archive.ph/20170508044618/https://twitter.com/SteveKingIA/status/861126549399101440</ref> Most recently, he endorsed [[Neo-Nazism|neo-Nazi]] [[Faith Goldy]] in her campaign for mayor of Toronto in 2017.<ref>https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/31/gop-fund-wont-help-steve-king-in-tight-race-due-to-white-supremacist-support.html</ref>

{{cquote|Wilders understands that culture and demographics are our destiny, we can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies.}}

==The end==
In 2018, Steve King barely won re-election in what was an ordinarily solid Republican district, winning by only 3.3%.<ref>https://ballotpedia.org/Iowa%27s_4th_Congressional_District_election,_2018</ref> On January 14, 2019, Steve King further lost his seat on commitee assignments,<ref>[https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/14/politics/mitch-mcconnell-steve-king-condemnation/index.html Steve King removed from committee assignments following racist comments], ''CNN'', January 15, 2019</ref> meaning Iowa now had no people on the Committee of Agriculture.<ref>[https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/agriculture/2019/01/15/steve-king-ag-committee-racist-remarks-iowa-farmers-republican-western-civilization-white-supremacy/2579211002/ King's removal from ag committee comes at worst possible time for struggling Iowa farmers, leaders say], ''Des Moines Insider'', January 15, 2019</ref> Even Republicans began to become upset with him. As a result, in the 2020 Iowa Republican primary, King lost renomination to state politician Randy Feenstra.<ref>Zachary Basu, [https://www.axios.com/steve-king-iowa-primary-0f573843-c5e3-4246-a92c-1c0ce72efcdf.html Iowa Rep. Steve King defeated in GOP primary], ''Axios'', June 2, 2020.</ref> Considering Feenstra is a garden variety GOP crackpot, the fact that he looked much more reasonable by comparison should tell you a lot about the man he replaced.

==Getting dunked on by Stephen King==
Due to their very similar names, many people have understandably confused Stephen King (the author) and Steve King (the politician); this was to the dismay of the former King (the author). He posted his disdain of the racist congressman, and when he was defeated in the primaries, he took to Twitter celebrating and proclaiming that he “was the 1 Steve King”.<ref>https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2018/11/05/stephen-king-tweet-vote-steve-king-out-confused-iowa-4th-distsrict-congressman-jd-scholten/1889533002/</ref><ref>https://rollcall.com/2020/06/03/i-am-the-last-steve-king-standing-author-tweets/</ref> What a chad.

==See also==
*[[Marjorie Taylor Greene]]: While not ''quite'' as overtly white nationalist, her conspiracy theorizing and nativist dogwhistles make her King's ''de facto'' successor
*[[Paul Gosar]]: Also a nativist and a fascist, and has openly associated with white nationalists.

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

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Categories: Alt-right, Anti-abortion activists, Anti-LGBT bigots, Antisemites, Catholics, Conspiracy theorists, Declinists, Ethnic entrepreneurs, Fascists, Former United States Representatives, Great Replacement conspiracy theorists, Global warming denialists, Homophobes, Islamophobes, Living people, Racists, Right-wing activists, Tea Party, United States politicians, White supremacists