Steve King has now been stripped of all his committee assignments by Leader McCarthy after his comments in the New York Times about white nationalism and white supremacy:
WASHINGTON EXAMINER – House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and House Republicans voted Monday night to strip Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, of all of committee assignments days after he openly wondered when “white supremacist” and “white nationalism” became offensive terms.
The Iowa Republican is slated to lose his post on the House Judiciary Committee, including his expected spot as the top Republican on the subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice. He was also set to lose his spot on the House Agriculture Committee, a key position given the importance of farming to his home state, and the Small Business Committee.
The decision was handed down after McCarthy met with King Monday afternoon for an hour and a day after McCarthy promised in an interview that “action will be taken” in the aftermath of King’s comments.
King declined to comment after the meeting with McCarthy.
King has since released a statement explaining what happened and how he feels the NY Times mischaracterized his comments:
What he says in defense of his comments here sounds completely plausible to me. But why wait until now to explain it this way? This should have been his first statement and not his last.
I suspect, as was suggested to me by El Sooper, that he didn’t take the media hits against him that seriously and perhaps didn’t think it would go this far.
Now it has and he’s lost all his committee assignments. And you know that will be used against him by his future foes.