Republican Congressman Steve King is basically one step away from parading through Iowa with a big white hood and burning a cross on his lawn. On Sunday, the Republican tweeted support for Islamophobic Dutch politician Geert Wilders, writing, “we can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.”
So far, few Republicans have condemned King’s comments, which made former KKK Imperial Grand Wizard David Duke very, very happy:
I’m not sure why, but CNN’s Chris Cuomo attempted to give King a chance to redeem himself by clarifying his comments on Monday morning. But King—who has in the past compared DREAMers to drug mules, opposed putting Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill because that would be, in his words, both “racist” and “sexist,” and proudly places the Confederate Flag on his desk—doubled down on his racist white supremacist garbage.
“Of course I meant exactly what I said,” he said.
“Who is somebody else’s babies?” Cuomo asked. King did not say, instead describing a vision of American civilization preserved by kids who play football and basketball or some shit.
Cuomo tried again, saying, it seems like “you were trying to say ‘someone else’s babies’ means ‘you’re either white or you’re not right.’”
“And as you know, that’s anathema to what America is all about. Can we get agreement on that?” Cuomo asked
“If you go down the road a few generations or maybe centuries with the intermarriage, I’d like to see an America that’s just so homogenous that we look a lot the same, from that perspective,” King replied.
Cuomo, to his credit, tried once more, asking, “A Muslim-American, an Italian-American, a Christian-American, a Jewish-American, you do realize that they are all equal, right? They are all the same thing. We don’t need babies from one of those groups more than we need them from other groups. Do you agree with that?”
King did not say yes. Instead, he paused, swallowed, and said, “Well...” Cuomo pounced on him for hesitating, and King said meekly, “It’s not that simple...”
It’s only “not that simple” if you are a white supremacist trying to tone down some of your racist beliefs for cable TV. On that note, I’ll leave you with this sentiment from comedian Kumail Nanjiani: