Steve King is Clearly an Outlier in the Republican Party
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All of a sudden, Steve King is a problem for Republicans, despite Trump previously saying he “has the right views.” But yeah, King’s white supremacy is clearly an outlier for the Republican Party.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) took a few minutes in his concluding floor remarks Thursday to scold a Republican representative who shouted “go back to Puerto Rico!” during Rep. Tony Cardenas’s (D-CA) speech on the shutdown.
“I would hope that we could refrain from any implications which have any undertones of prejudice or racism or any kind of -ism that would diminish the character and integrity of one of our fellow members,” Hoyer said.
For the record, Cardenas is from Los Angeles. However, it is unclear if the remark was made in a racist spirit, or a reference to the delegation of Democrats who traveled to Puerto Rico last weekend. It is not immediately clear who on the Republican side of the chamber yelled the remark.
Well, I’m sure I’m being too harsh here. Oh wait.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but is that Chuck C. Johnson walking with Reps. Phil Roe and Andy Harris?
Both waited for him to get through security. pic.twitter.com/ybfdK8Bwqy
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) January 16, 2019
Two Republican congressmen met with noted Holocaust denier and white nationalist Chuck Johnson to discuss “DNA sequencing,” less than a day after the House voted to disavow white supremacy and white nationalism in reaction to racist comments by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa).
DNA sequencing? Was this about how white DNA was superior to everyone else?
The lawmakers faced immediate backlash. Johnson is widely known as a white nationalist and social-media troll, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
He also questions how many Jewish people were killed in the Holocaust, ran a crowdfunding site for white supremacists and neo-Nazis, said “anti-racist is anti-white,” was kicked off Twitter for threatening to “take out” a Black Lives Matter activist and suggested an Amtrak crash was caused by the engineer’s sexuality. He drew scrutiny last week when Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla) gave him a ticket to attend President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.
Responding to questions raised about their meeting with Johnson, Harris and Roe said they had no knowledge of his past.
Roe’s office said the lawmaker met with Johnson to discuss “what seemed like legitimate information” about “DNA sequencing.”
“Congressman Roe would not have taken the meeting had he been aware of Mr. Johnson’s previously expressed views ― which he believes are abhorrent ― were not alluded to in the meeting, and were not readily discoverable when Congressman Roe’s staff looked into the name ‘Charles Johnson,’ which is how he was presented,” spokesman Alexander Whitley told HuffPost in an email.
Yes, it’s impossible to know who Chuck Johnson is. There is no way a congressional staff could ever figure this out.
In conclusion, Republicans truly are the party of civil rights.