Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) is standing behind his controversial tweet indicating support of white nationalism, saying on Monday that he’d like the United States to be “so homogenous that we look a lot the same.”
King faced severe backlash Sunday after retweeting an Islamophobic cartoon.
When CNN host Chris Cuomo confronted King about the tweet, the congressman chose to double down on the message.
“This is being condemned by many regions of American politics and citizenry,” Cuomo said about King’s tweet. “What did you mean?”
“Well, of course, I meant exactly what I said,” King replied. “You cannot rebuild your civilization with somebody else’s babies. You’ve got to keep your birth rate up. ... You need to teach your children your values and in doing so, then you can grow your population, and you can strengthen your culture, you can strengthen your way of life.”
Cuomo called out King for wanting to “white cleanse” the U.S. population and said his birth rate strategy is “a complete contradiction” of American values.
King didn’t explicitly refute the assertion, claiming his “somebody else’s babies” comment addressed what he considers a “push to bring much illegal immigration” to America and “the void” that abortion has left in the U.S. population.
“I want us to be looking at that, promoting the birth rate in America, restoring the rule of law, putting an end to illegal immigration and recognizing we need to be a country that’s pulled together on similar values,” King said.
Cuomo pushed back again, accusing King of viewing Americans as either “white” or “not right.”
“I’d like to see an America that’s just so homogenous that we look a lot the same from that perspective,” King said. “I think there’s been far too much focus on race, especially in the last eight years. And I want to see that put behind us.”
King’s recent tweet is only the latest racially charged remark the congressman has made. In July, he came under scrutiny for claiming Western civilization (white people, essentially) had made the most contributions to the world throughout history.
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