Chuck Grassley: voters will decide on keeping Steve King in Washington
Iowa’s senior senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican, told reporters voters will have to decide on King.
U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, during the annual American Conservative Union CPAC conference on March 3, 2016 at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland. (Gage Skidmore/Planet Pix/Zuma Press/TNS)
January 16, 2019
In a call with reporters on Wednesday, Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley said voters are the ones who will decide whether Iowa’s 4th District Representative, Republican Steve King, will keep his seat in Congress.
“I think he’s a representative of the 4th District and the voters up there are the ones who are going to decide even today or in the next election whether or not he should be a Congressman or not and beyond that I can’t say much more than I already have,” Grassley said.
Monday, King was removed from his House committee assignments after he made comments last week about white nationalism and white supremacy.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders praised King’s removal, calling his comments “abhorrent.”
King’s most recent desertion of support came after he was quoted by the New York Times last week as saying “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?”
Grassley also said King wouldn’t be as effective without committee assignments.
Grassley condemned King’s comments, telling Axio’s Jonathan Swan he found them “offensive.”
“I find it offensive to claim white supremacy. I will condemn it.” — @ChuckGrassley, when @caitlinnowens and I asked him about his Iowa colleague @SteveKingIA’s comments to the NYT.
— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) January 12, 2019
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) has also publicly condemned King’s comments.
I condemn Rep. Steve King’s comments on white supremacy; they are offensive and racist – and not representative of our state of Iowa. We are a great nation and this divisiveness is hurting everyone. We cannot continue down this path if we want to continue to be a great nation.
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) January 12, 2019
