Racist Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) invoked the message of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when responding to a constituent’s praise over the weekend.
A voter named Pamela called the congressman “proud and talented” at Saturday’s town hall event in Primghar, King’s first since facing a backlash for asking how the terms “white supremacist” and “white nationalist” had become offensive in an interview with The New York Times.
Pamela, who described herself as a loyal Fox News viewer and staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, lamented the “serious progressive movement” that “wants to take us away from the America that we know.”
She then addressed the backlash King faced following his comments to the Times:
“One of the things that I was bothered by, when you had this problem, was the reverse racism toward the white European man that founded this country. And that’s the values that we’re built on. And we have to be embarrassed to say, anymore, that we are white and European background, and I think that is wrong, and I think we need to push back.”
“We need to take the power and sting out of those words,” she added, before chiding other GOP congressmen for not defending King. Pamela then urged others to “push back” and, when questioned about their offensive rhetoric, simply reply: “I said it, so what?”
Congressman King responded:
“First I would say in response to your statement and your question, Pam, that we can do the things that you’ve described and we can, at the same time, embrace everything that Dr. Martin Luther King taught us, all at the same time. And if we had stuck with his vision, we wouldn’t be in the place we’re in today in this society, in this country.”
Check out the clip, via CNN, here:
The congressman similarly commemorated King with a quote, which actually turned out to be fake, on the day honoring his birth. The lawmaker has previously lauded white nationalism on Twitter and in 2017 wrote: “Diversity is not our strength.”