Luke Skywalker
Super Moderator
{vb:raw ozzmodz_postquote}:
Rep. Steve King listens to speeches from the floor the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on July 18, 2016.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Mandi Wright, USA TODAY)
Rep. Steve King, an Iowa Republican who has a penchant for controversy, created an uproar on social media Monday by making a salute to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the achievements of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>white people during a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>cable television appearance<span style="color: Red;">*</span>at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
Appearing on an<span style="color: Red;">*</span>MSNBC panel led by Chris Hayes, King suggested<span style="color: Red;">*</span>that presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump had modified his comments on race<span style="color: Red;">*</span>that had attracted criticism earlier in the campaign. But Charles Pierce of Esquire magazine observed that the predominately white Republican convention was hardly a celebration of diversity.
"If you're really optimistic,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>you can say that this is the last time that old white people will command the Republican Party's attention, its platform, its public face," Pierce said.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"That hall is wired by loud, unhappy, dissatisfied white people."
King offered a dissenting view.
"This 'old white people' business does get a little tired, Charlie," King said. "I'd ask you to go back through history and figure out, where are these contributions that have been made by these other categories of people that you're talking about, where did any other subgroup of people contribute more to civilization?"
Hayes asked:<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"Than white people?"
"Than, than Western civilization itself," King said.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"It's rooted in Western Europe, Eastern Europe and the United States of America and every place where the footprint of Christianity settled the world. That's all of Western civilization."
King's remarks resulted in other panelists entering the fray.
Journalist April Ryan, who is black, queried King:<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"What about Asia? What about Africa?"
Hayes tried to regain order on the panel.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"We're not going to argue the history of Western civilization," he said.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"Let me note for the record that if you're looking at the ledger of Western civilization, for every flourishing democracy, you have Hitler and Stalin as well."
King's comments drew a flurry of harsh criticism on social media. On Twitter, some people tweeted that King's remarks represented a white supremacist view while others simply called them racist.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Meanwhile, Hayes tweeted that King's statement was "jaw-dropping."
King was<span style="color: Red;">*</span>criticized in June<span style="color: Red;">*</span>by Rep. Dave Loebsack, an Iowa Democrat, who said he is an "embarrassment to Iowa" because of a history of "racist and sexist comments."
Loebsack was responding to King's introduction of an<span style="color: Red;">*</span>amendment in the U.S. House<span style="color: Red;">*</span>that would have<span style="color: Red;">*</span>prevented Harriet Tubman, an abolitionist and supporter of women's suffrage, from replacing Andrew Jackson on the front of the $20 bill. The House Rules Committee agreed<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to deny floor consideration of the proposal, which would have<span style="color: Red;">*</span>prevented the Treasury Department from spending money to redesign paper currency or coins.
Just last week, King again<span style="color: Red;">*</span>attracted controversy for having a small Confederate flag among a group of small historical flags on his desk.
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