Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) on Monday called on fellow GOP Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) to resign over recent comments he made about white supremacy and white nationalism.
“I wish he’d resign, frankly,” Stewart said on CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time.” “He’s lost the trust and faith of his comrades. For the good of the party, for the good of the American people, I think it’s time for us to make a change.”
His comments came just hours after GOP leaders in Congress stripped the Iowa congressman from any committee assignments in the new Congress.{mosads}
Stewart said that he “absolutely” agreed with the decision, adding that “without committee assignments … [King] can’t do work in Congress.”
“It’s not the first time that he’s said things that the party just cringes at and says ‘what in the world,’ ” Stewart said, acknowledging that the GOP could have addressed King’s past controversial comments.
King last week prompted outrage from Democratic and Republican lawmakers after he questioned why terms such as “white nationalist” and “white supremacist” were offensive in an interview with The New York Times.
“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” King, who has served in Congress since 2003, asked. “Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) vowed to take action over the remarks on Sunday. He announced a day later that King would not serve on any committees in the new Congress.
King had been a member of the House Judiciary, Agriculture and Small Business committees. He had also served as chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice in the last Congress.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) was the first Republican in Congress
to call for King to resign on Monday, telling reporters that “Congress ought to make it very clear he has no place there.”
King has defended himself amid the backlash, saying he is not a white supremacist or white nationalist and was not suggesting either were acceptable in the interview. He
said in a statement Monday that the GOP’s decision to strip him of committee assignments was a “political decision that ignores the truth.”