Last week, The New York Times, desperate to take down another Republican – one they have already marked as an easy target – ran a whopper of a fake news story.
The story was presented in the context of an “interview” with Iowa Rep. Steve King. Instead of publishing King’s remarks in full, the Times carefully snipped a piece of his comments out of context and used it to slander him as a full-throated racist. Not just a racist, but a racist stupid enough to tell The New York Times that he sees nothing at all wrong with white supremacy.
“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” King reportedly asked the Times.
The blowback was immediate and predictable. First, South Carolina congressman Tim Scott, a Republican, slammed King’s remarks and declared there to be no room in the party for such racism. Before long, Scott was joined by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and the self-appointed Conscience of the Senate, Mitt Romney, in throwing King under the bus.
“This is not the first time we’ve heard these comments,” McCarthy said. “That is not the party of Lincoln and it’s definitely not American.”
McConnell said: “I have no tolerance for such positions and those who espouse these views are not supporters of American ideals and freedoms. Rep. King’s statements are unwelcome and unworthy of his elected position. If he doesn’t understand why ‘white supremacy’ is offensive, he should find another line of work.”
“I think he ought to step aside,” said new arrival Romney, “and I think Congress ought to make it very clear he has no place there.”
On Monday, House GOP leaders went further, removing King from his positions on the Judiciary and Agriculture Committees.
Were King’s remarks and point-of-view portrayed honestly, one could almost excuse this pandering response. It’s not in anyone’s interest to prove the liberals right and turn the Republican Party into a welcoming home for white supremacy.
As it happens, however, King’s remarks were not presented honestly. And in his clarifying statement, he proved that the Opposition Party will stoop to any level to destroy a good Republican.
“In a 56 minute interview, we discussed the changing use of language in political discourse,” King explained. “We discussed the worn out label ‘racist’ and my observation that other slanderous labels have been increasingly assigned to Conservatives by the Left, who injected into our current political dialog such terms as ‘Nazi, Fascist, White Nationalist, White Supremacist…’
“…Western Civilization, how did THAT language become offensive?” King asked the Times. “Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?”
“Clearly, I was only referencing Western Civilization classes,” King continued. “No one ever sat in a class listening to the merits of white nationalism and white supremacy. When I used the word ‘THAT’ it was in reference ONLY to Western Civilization and NOT to any previously stated evil ideology ALL of which I have denounced.”
This is a clear and believable explanation that absolves King of any thought crimes for which Republicans might reasonably censure him. The explanation makes sense; frankly, much more sense than the other reading, which requires you to believe that King is not only a racist but also suffers from early-onset dementia.
Republicans jumped the gun on this one, and demonstrated to the Times and the rest of the left-wing media that they will still ask “how high?” when asked to jump.
And what did they get for this obsequious response? A pat on the back? An assurance that they wouldn’t lose the one percent of black voters who didn’t pull the lever for Hillary?
No, they got this response from Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX): “I’m glad that they are finally taking action after all of these years of Steve King slandering immigrants and Hispanics, but the president of the United States is also doing that and he just said something about Elizabeth Warren a few evenings ago that was also racially ugly and we haven’t heard a word of condemnation from anyone in the Republican Party about that.”
And frankly, if anyone in the Republican Party expected anything more, they deserve whatever condemnation from the left that they get. Three years after Trump came on the scene, and they still have absolutely no idea how to handle attacks from the liberal media. How is that possible?
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