Rep. Steve King believes he will get his committee seats back as soon as next year after being stripped of his assignments over remarks about white supremacy.
Rep. Steve Stivers, an Ohio Republican who sits on the Steering Committee, which decided committee assignments for GOP House members, begs to differ.
“Rep. Steve King claims he will get his committees back next year,” Stivers tweeted Wednesday on his campaign account. “As long as I am a member of the Republican Steering Committee, I will not allow hate & bigotry to influence the legislation passed by Congress. He will not be serving on any committee.”
Stivers is a longtime critic of King. In fall 2018, as chairman of the House Republicans’ campaign arm, Stivers blasted King for actions and comments that were “completely inappropriate,” including retweeting a comment about “Satan” George Soros, which many took as anti-Semitic.
King, a Republican from Iowa, said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy agreed to a process that could lead to “exoneration” for King and a return to the committees he was stripped of last year. King was first elected to the House in 2002. He faces several Republican primary opponents for his northwest Iowa seat on June 2.
McCarthy, a California Republican, stripped King of his committee assignments in early January 2019, shortly after he became minority leader, the top GOP member in the House. King has a history of inflammatory comments, which critics have deemed racist. McCarthy specifically cited a King interview in January 2019 with the New York Times.
“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” King said in the interview. “Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?”
King has claimed the paper took his words out of context.
The Sioux City Journal reports King claimed on Monday, while at a candidate forum in Spencer, Iowa, that he would regain all of his seniority after speaking with McCarthy.
During his speech, King reportedly showed large graphs showing an increase in news stories using the term “white nationalism” since President Trump won in 2016. The congressman blamed the verbiage on the political Left, saying its heightened use targets Trump supporters and conservatives.
King’s prior committee assignments include the House Agriculture panel, an important position for a federal representative from Iowa to hold.
