Steve King accuses Weekly Standard of trying to ‘advance a Leftist agenda’

Iowa Rep. Steve King (R) took aim at The Weekly Standard early Friday morning, accusing the conservative magazine of advancing a “Leftist” agenda with an article panning his victory in Tuesday’s midterms.

In a tweet sent just before 4 a.m., the congressman accused the right-leaning policy magazine of spreading “willful lies” about his record and controversial past statements following his victory over J.D. Scholten (D).

“The Weekly ‘NO’ Standard(s) has joined HuffPo at the bottom of the lying journalistic gutter,” the congressman wrote Friday morning.

The Weekly “NO” Standard(s) has joined HuffPo at the bottom of the lying journalistic gutter. No question that now their purpose is to write willful lies to advance a Leftist agenda. We threw this WS writer out after he disqualified himself. https://t.co/05k0KMnkld

— Steve King (@SteveKingIA) November 9, 2018

The piece, written by The Weekly Standard’s assistant opinion editor Adam Rubenstein, describes King as a lawmaker with a “very meager legislative record” who has said and done “indecent” things since taking office.

{mosads}In particular, the piece points to King’s endorsement of Faith Goldy, a candidate in Toronto’s mayoral election accused of being a white nationalist, as well as King’s support for the “great replacement” theory, which theorizes that global elites are purposefully working to replace populations with immigrants around the world.

King has repeatedly dismissed the criticism against him as attacks by the media, and won reelection this week by single-digits after criticism of his past comments sparked a wave of fundraising for his opponent.

His campaign was criticized by prominent Republicans including National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Rep. Steve Stivers (Ohio) and retiring Florida Rep. Carlos Curbelo, both of whom refused to endorse his candidacy.

King won Tuesday’s election by less than 4 points, capturing 50.7 percent of the vote in Iowa’s 4th District compared to 47 percent for Scholten.