Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Newscom
Rep. Steve King (R–Iowa) dialed up the anti-gay rhetoric in the lead-up to Election Day, where he's facing a competitive challenger in Democrat J.D. Scholten.
King managed to both slam the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) for once supporting a homosexual candidate, as well as suggest that two female Supreme Court justices should "elope to Cuba."
Andrew Bates, the communications director for a liberal super PAC called American Bridge, posted a video to Twitter yesterday of King's NRCC comments. "[The NRCC] sent money over to support a candidate in a primary in California who…had a same-sex partner that they put all over glossy mailers. I don't know if they were holding hands, or what was the deal," King said:
Now @SteveKingIA is attacking the NRCC for backing a gay candidate: "They sent money over to support a candidate in a primary in California who had a same-sex partner that they put all over glossy mailers…That's hard to write a check to those guys when they do that." #IA04 pic.twitter.com/TXrF67KIoE — Andrew Bates (@AndrewBatesNC) November 6, 2018
It wasn't clear which candidate King was referring to. But as HuffPost points out, the NRCC supported the gay former San Diego Councilman Carl DeMaio in his unsuccessful 2014 House run.
It's not a total surprise that King isn't a big fan of the NRCC right now. Rep. Steve Stivers (R–Ohio), who chairs the House Republican campaign arm, criticized King last week over some of his recent controversial comments on race. According to Roll Call, Stivers' criticism was a sign the NRCC wouldn't be spending additional money to help King beat Scholten.
King also joked yesterday that Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor should "elope to Cuba" after the midterms, according to The Weekly Standard's Adam Rubenstein. The exact context of that remark wasn't apparent, though he seemed to be discussing his hopes for a more solidly conservative Supreme Court majority.
Characterizing his two comments as insensitive is probably the kindest way to describe what King said. But don't forget that in addition to being anti-gay, King is a nativist who seems to generally dislike immigration, particularly the illegal kind. He also seems to have a knack for supporting white supremacists. Inflammatory rhetoric appears to be King's calling card.
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