Des Moines Register calls on Steve King to resign

The Des Moines Register published a scathing editorial on Tuesday calling for Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) to resign over his recent remarks regarding white supremacy.

“Congressman Steve King should resign. He has lost even the potential to effectively represent his Iowa constituents because of his abhorrent comments about white nationalism and white supremacy,” the paper’s editorial board wrote. 

“We don’t make the argument that King should resign lightly, or based on partisan preferences,” it added, noting that King was reelected to a ninth term in November and voters “had every opportunity to recognize” his “caustic, racially charged ideology” on immigration.{mosads}

The newspaper published the editorial hours after the House voted for a resolution broadly rejecting white supremacy in the wake of King’s comments – a resolution that the Iowa Republican voted for on Tuesday.

The measure passed by a vote of 424-1, with the lone dissenter, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), saying that it was not specific enough in its condemnation of King.

Rush and Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) have both introduced resolutions to censure King for his remarks last week in a New York Times interview, when he questioned why terms such as “white nationalist” and “white supremacy” had become offensive.

“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” he asked.

The Register said the comments should be “career ending.”

House Republicans have removed King from his positions on the House Judiciary, Agriculture and Small Business committees in the wake of uproar over his remarks.

Several members of Congress, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and House GOP Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) have called on King to find another line of work.

The Iowa Republican has a history of making highly controversial comments about immigration and western civilization.

He was criticized for saying in 2017 that “we can’t rebuild our civilization with somebody else’s babies” while tweeting in support of an anti-Muslim nationalist Dutch politician and meeting in 2018 with a far-right Austrian group associated with the Nazi party. 

“King has often made Iowa a laughing stock on the national stage with his offensive and absurd remarks about undocumented immigrants, comparing them to dogs or disparaging them as drug mules with calves the size of cantaloupes,” the Register wrote.

King has made it clear he has no intention of resigning.

“I will continue to point out the truth and work with all the vigor that I have to represent 4th District Iowans for at least the next two years,” he said Monday.