GOP rep: No regrets for partly blaming Obama for lawmaker shooting

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) is not backing down from partially blaming former President Barack Obama for the attack on Republican lawmakers at baseball practice last week. 

“The answer is no,” King told CNN on Thursday when asked if he regretted his comments.

King last week linked Obama to the shooting, saying he deepened the country’s political divisions by emphasizing “differences rather than our things that unify us.” He said political division is what led someone to open fire on the Republican lawmakers. 

{mosads}”I do want to put some of this at the feet of Barack Obama,” King said on WHO Iowa radio after the shooting. “He contributed mightily to dividing us. He focused on our differences rather than our things that unify us. And this is some of the fruits of that labor.” 

King told CNN that he had made similar comments about Obama before, not just in the aftermath of the shooting. 

He said Obama was elected in 2008 “in a perfect position to heal the divisions in this country,” but he “failed in that regard.”

“We have to speak about these things accurately,” King added. “What I said on that ball field about that politically motivated shooting is exactly on target, and most of the public agrees with me on it.”