Steve King, Republican Congressman: Al-Qaida Will Be "Dancing In The Streets" If "Hussein" Obama Wins
***UPDATED 3/11***
King said Monday that Obama would be viewed as a "savior" for terrorists:
An Iowa Republican congressman on Monday defended his prediction that terrorists would celebrate if Democrat Barack Obama were elected president, despite a rebuke from aides to John McCain, the GOP's apparent presidential nominee.
"(Obama will) certainly be viewed as a savior for them," Rep. Steve King told The Associated Press. "That's why you will see them supporting him, encouraging him."
EARLIER: King refused to back down from his comments in an interview with Fox News Channel host Geraldo Rivera:
"I reject [McCain's] disavowal and I reject the Democrat web pages that call me the names that they have," King said. "I'd ask them to point to the quote that I have said that offends them. And if I am wrong, Geraldo, and we elect Obama to the presidency and he declares defeat, if they don't dance in the streets, I will come and apologize to you and everybody in America. But I'm saying, I'm right."
ORIGINAL REPORT: From the AP:
An Iowa Republican congressman said Friday that terrorists would be "dancing in the streets" if Democratic candidate Barack Obama were to win the presidency.
Rep. Steve King based his prediction on Obama's pledge to pull troops out of Iraq, his Kenyan heritage and his middle name, Hussein.
"The radical Islamists, the al-Qaida ... would be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on Sept. 11 because they would declare victory in this war on terror," King said in an interview with the Daily Reporter in Spencer.
King said his comments were not meant to demean Obama but to warn how an Obama presidency would look to the world.
"His middle name does matter," King said. "It matters because they read a meaning into that."
More Of King's Comments from the Spencer Daily Reporter:
"There are implications that have to do with who he is and the position that he's taken. If he were strong on national defense and said 'I'm going to go over there and we're going to fight and we're going to win, we'll come home with a victory,' that's different. But that's not what he said. They will be dancing in the streets if he's elected president. That has a chilling aspect on how difficult it will be to ever win this Global War on Terror."
Keep reading
Watch the interview:
Listen to the full interview here
Read more about Steve King here
Past Statements By King:
***In a statement issued by his Congressional office following the release of photos depicting prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, King referred to the maltreatment of prisoners at the infamous Baghdad prison as "what amounts to hazing."
***In June 2006, on the floor of the House of Representatives, King said that his family would be safer in Iraq than Washington D.C.:
Well I by now have a feel for the rhythm of this place called Washington, D.C., and my wife lives here with me, and I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, she's at far greater risk being a civilian in Washington, D.C. than an average civilian in Iraq.
***After the death of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, King said:
"There probably are not 72 virgins in the hell he's at," King said about al-Zarqawi, in a recording transcribed by Radio Iowa. "And if there are, they probably all look like Helen Thomas."
***King has called former Sen. Joseph McCarthy, "a great American hero."
***King said immigrants trying to cross the border from Mexico should be treated like livestock:
I also say we need to do a few other things on top of that wall, and one of them being to put a little bit of wire on top here to provide a disincentive for people to climb over the top or put a ladder there. We could also electrify this wire with the kind of current that would not kill somebody, but it would simply be a discouragement for them to be fooling around with it. We do that with livestock all the time.
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AP | JAMES BELTRAN | March 8, 2008 12:21 PM