Culture

Rep. Steve King’s White Supremacist Tweet About Muslim Babies Pleased Former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke

Getty Image

When Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa) makes headlines, it’s usually because he’s offending people. Last year, he labeled the act of putting Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill as “racist,” and he called Colin Kaepernick “sympathetic to ISIS” for taking a knee during the national anthem. Now, King’s upsetting people again with a white supremacist tweet that praises Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders (leader of the Party for Freedom).

Wilders’ current election campaign platform includes a vow to “de-Islamise” the Netherlands. He also wants to close all mosques (going so far as to ban the Quran) and shut down Muslim immigration into the country. King must be a fan, for he affirmed Wilders’ sentiments on Twitter and added, “We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.”

In doing so, King retweeted an unverified account called Voice of Europe, which was railing against Islamists in the Netherlands and describes itself as “real news” in its Twitter profile. Yet one glance at the account’s tweets reveals a love of conspiracy theories, Breitbart stories, and the like. The Voice of Reason’s original tweet shows a cartoon of an eroding wall that’s labeled “Western civilization,” so there’s no subtlety to be found.

Given King’s previously articulated stances, it’s no surprise that he’s contributing to the argument that Westerners are in grave danger from outsiders. Many replies to King’s tweet expressed their disgust with his sentiments, but one Twitter user was quite pleased over King’s tweet. Former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke didn’t even try to contain his excitement.

Last week, King was one of the few politicians who expressed support for Trump’s unfounded wiretapping claims. In this MSNBC clip, he says both Trump and Mike Pence were wiretapped before admitting, “We actually don’t have any facts to work with on this.”