As tempting as it may be to ignore Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) as an obscure extremist with no real power, the fact remains that House Republican leaders recently put the Iowa congressman in charge of writing their border bill.
And now, as Right Wing Watch’s Kyle Mantyla reports, King is offering words of wisdom about developments in Ferguson (thanks to my colleague Laura Conaway for the heads-up).
Rep. Steve King appeared on Newsmax TV yesterday, where host J.D. Hayworth asked him about the rising tensions in Ferguson, Missouri and the call by members of the Congressional Black Caucus for the Department of Justice to conduct an independent investigation because of concerns about a history of racial profiling by the local police department.King, of course, saw no need for such an investigation, claiming that these members of the CBC are basically “saying don’t enforce the law,” linking the issue to the sporadic looting and vandalism that has taken place by asserting that there is no need to racially profile those responsible for those actions because they are all black.
King’s appearance even introduced a new racially charged euphemism into the conversation.
“This idea of no racial profiling,” King said, “I’ve seen the video. It looks to me like you don’t need to bother with that particular factor because they all appear to be of a single origin, I should say, a continental origin might be the way to phrase that.”
Well, it’s certainly one way to phrase that.
Here’s the video, as posted by RWW. Note that the host is J.D. Hayworth, a former House Republican congressman who ran against Sen. John McCain (R) in an unsuccessful Arizona primary in 2012.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."