If What Steve King Revealed Is True, NYT Totally Set Him up to Look Like a Rabid Racist
Iowa Rep. Steve King is being attacked from all sides for comments published by The New York Times last week, but his explanation makes it seem like he was set up.
Without King’s explanation, the comments he made for an article in The New York Times makes him seem like a rabid racist.
“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” King was reported as saying.
Clearly, if King really was trying to defend the idea of “white supremacy,” it would be appalling.
In the past, King has denied accusations of being racist, so it would be strange for him to casually defend such reprehensible ideas in an article for The Times.
“Mr. King, in the interview, said he was not a racist. He pointed to his Twitter timeline showing him greeting Iowans of all races and religions in his Washington office,” The Times reported.
It turns out that The Times might have left out a crucial bit of emphasis in King’s controversial comment.
“One of my quotes in a New York Times story has been completely mischaracterized. Here’s the context I believe accurately reflects my statement,” King said in a statement released Monday.
During the interview, King was discussing the false accusations of “racism” and “white supremacy” often used by the left, and then pondered why “Western civilization” became a bad word lumped in with the others.
King said that the proper emphasis of his comment would be, “White Nationalist, White Supremacist,— Western civilization, how did THAT language become offensive? 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,” the statement said. “No one ever sat in a class listening to the merits of white nationalism and white supremacy.”
In other words, King was questioning why the phrase “Western civilization” became offensive, not “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,” King explained. “My record as a vocal advocate for Western Civilization is nearly as full as my record in defense of Freedom of Speech.”
My statement on the New York Times article. pic.twitter.com/IjBHgZYgRD
— Steve King (@SteveKingIA) January 10, 2019
King’s explanation makes sense. Grammatically speaking, if he were talking about all three ideologies, the quote should have said “how did they become offensive?”
Now, no one’s making an argument that anyone, including Rep. King, always speaks with grammatical precision, but in light of his explanation, it should definitely be considered.
And there’s no arguing his point that in modern America, “No one ever sat in a class listening to the merits of white nationalism and white supremacy.”
“Western civilization,” on the other hand, is obviously understood to be an academic course.
But liberals aren’t interested in what makes sense. They’re desperate to create “racists” to help fuel their paranoid delusions about America being “racist.”
As a result of the hit piece, King lost his House committee memberships and received criticism from Republicans.
The left-wing establishment media is using fake news to attack their enemies and destabilize the Republican Party.
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