Iowa’s Steve King off House committees after race remarks

WASHINGTON — Veteran Republican Rep. Steve King will be blocked from committee assignments for the next two years after lamenting that white supremacy and white nationalism have become offensive terms.

King, in his ninth term representing Iowa, will not be given committee assignments in the Congress that began this month, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy says. King served on the Agriculture, Small Business and Judiciary committees in the last Congress, and he chaired Judiciary’s subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice.

McCarthy, a Republican of California, calls King’s remarks “beneath the dignity of the Party of Lincoln and the United States of America.”

King’s comments “call into question whether he will treat all Americans equally, without regard for race and ethnicity,” McCarthy says, adding: “House Republicans are clear: We are all in this together, as fellow citizens equal before God and the law.”

The action by the GOP steering committee came after King and McCarthy met Monday to discuss the remarks on white supremacy, the latest in a years-long pattern of racially insensitive remarks by King.

King calls McCarthy’s decision to remove him from committees “a political decision that ignores the truth.” He vows to “continue to point out the truth and work with all the vigor that I have to represent 4th District Iowans for at least the next two years.”

— AP