Lady Karma is a tough old broad and she’s claiming her own today. Not only did Donald Trump get treated to the voices of protesters chanting “Lock Him Up!” In New Orleans, Mitch McConnell finally pulled the plug on Steve King, and then Kevin McCarthy did the formalities. King recently asked the rhetorical question, of the New York Times no less, “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive? Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?” and then everybody got upset and poor Steve King doesn’t know why.
So Monday, Mitch McConnell schooled King, saying if King “doesn’t understand why ‘white supremacy’ is offensive, he should find another line of work.” And then he said, “There is no place in the Republican party for an ideology of white supremacy.” Seriously, Mitch, if you got rid of all the Republicans with an ideology of white supremacy, the remainder of the Republican party could conduct its meetings in a phone booth, and how would that pass any legislation?
Be that as it may, erstwhile Rep. King will have plenty of time for a job search, because a few hours after McConnell spoke, Kevin McCarthy stripped King of all committee assignments in the House, prompting King to explain himself thusly. The Hill:
“Leader McCarthy’s decision to remove me from committees is a political decision that ignores the truth,” King said in a statement.
“When I used the word ‘THAT’ it was in reference ONLY to Western Civilization and NOT to any previously stated evil ideology ALL of which I have denounced. My record as a vocal advocate for Western Civilization is nearly as full as my record in defense of Freedom of Speech.”
House Democrats are expected to put a resolution introduced by Majority Whip James Clyburn (S.C.) on the floor for a vote on Tuesday to formally disapprove of King’s remarks.
Two other House Democrats unveiled resolutions earlier Monday to censure King.
Now where, oh where, did anybody ever get this notion that Steve King was a racist in the first place? Alternet:
He said that most young Mexican-Americans are drug mules with “calves the size of cantaloupes.” He called a Hispanic woman that former First Lady Michelle Obama brought to a State of the Union address a “deportable.” He has said that “diversity is not our strength,” and that America should be more racially “homogenous” because “we can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.” He said the Blacks and Hispanics “will be fighting each other” before they overtake whites in population. He recommended people read The Camp of the Saints, a racist 1973 novel in which a feces-eating warlord conquers Europe with a horde of nonwhite invaders. He has routinely shared content from white supremacist politicians around the world, including from a British neo-Nazi, and endorsed a white nationalist candidate for mayor of Toronto.
Perhaps King’s vilest moment, however — and likely the one that got [Rep. Steve] Stivers’ attention — was the recent incident in which King flew to Europe on a trip paid for by a Holocaust remembrance group, and gave an interview to a far-right Austrian political party founded by a Nazi SS officer. During that interview, King said that low white birthrates threaten the West, and suggested that Holocaust survivor and billionaire philanthropist George Soros is financing the “Great Replacement,” a conspiracy theory that holds nonwhite immigration is a systematic plot to depopulate whites in Europe.
Just another big misunderstanding, where a really great Republican guy (and they’re mostly guys) has a hassle. This has to be at least as egregious as that dreadful misunderstanding that Mike Pence hates gays. King should call Mike tonight, or maybe even have dinner with him, which would be okay, since they’re both guys.
The takeaway from this memorable occasion is that King has been facing censure for days but it wasn’t until McConnell lowered the boom, that action was taken. This is a foreshadowing of a bigger event. The day will come when McConnell takes the mic and solemnly intones what a Republican president, the party of Lincoln and so forth, may and may not do. And when he lowers the boom on that occasion, it will be the end of Donald Trump. Just as soon as Trump finally does whatever it is that inexorably takes him from the assets column into the liability, that’s when McConnell will move and when McConnell moves it will be official, and that’s when Trump will be toast. I.Can’t.Wait.
