Largest newspaper in King’s district calls for his resignation

The Sioux City Journal, the largest newspaper in Rep. Steve King’s district, called on the Iowa Republican to resign over his recent remarks regarding white supremacy and other controversial comments related to race.

“It’s time for Steve King to go. He should resign his seat in the U.S. House. A new election should be held for voters in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District to choose a replacement,” the newspaper wrote in an editorial released on Tuesday night. 

{mosads}The editorial staff wrote that “whatever measure of influence or effectiveness King possessed in the House is, in our view, gone” after House Republicans voted to strip King of his committee assignments and members overwhelmingly voted to reject white supremacy in the wake of his comments. 

“He is today, it appears to us, largely an outcast within the body in which he serves,” the editorial continued.

The resolution passed by the House on Tuesday to condemn white supremacy came days after the Republican sparked a whirlwind of criticism for questioning why terms such as “white nationalist” and “white supremacy” are considered offensive. 

“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” he asked in a New York Times interview.

The newspaper staff said “it’s hard for us to summon words that will properly convey how repugnant we view that remark.”

“Taken together, past controversial King comments related to race, the King comment in The Times story and reaction to the comment in The Times story have produced the need for change in this district’s House seat, in our view,” the editorial continued. “Constituents deserve better and more from the man or woman we send to represent us in Washington, D.C.”

The newspaper went on write that if King “cares deeply about citizens of the 4th, and we believe he does, King should do what is in their best interests and step down from office.” 

“Finally, as our nation prepares to observe what would have been the 90th birthday of late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.,” the editorial concluded, “let us all embrace equality and tolerance and reject, in all their reprehensible forms, inequality and intolerance.”

The Des Moines Register — Iowa’s largest newspaper — on Tuesday called for King to resign over the comments.