Democrats who wanted to censure Representative Steve King because he supposedly advocated “white supremacy” during an interview with the New York Times won’t get their way — thanks to Democrats who likely wanted to censure King as well.
The reason: King unbosomed his remarks in an interview, outside his capacity as a congressman, and not, for instance, on the floor of the House.
Party mugwumps rightly worried that several young kooks who just took office would provide an endless train of censure opportunities for Republicans, and thus decided that discretion was the better part of valor.
Lasting Consequences
King became a target after the Times garbled a quote.
“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” King asked, the Times reported. “Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?”
But that isn’t what the congressman said, he explained in a news release after the Times detonated their bomb on January 11.
In a 56 minute interview, we discussed the changing use of language in political discourse. We discussed the worn out label “racist” and my observation that other slanderous labels have been increasingly assigned to Conservatives by the Left, who injected into our current political dialog such terms as Nazi, Fascist, “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?”… just to watch Western Civilization become a derogatory term in political discourse today. Clearly, I was only referencing Western Civilization classes. No one ever sat in a class listening to the merits of white nationalism and white supremacy.
When I used the word “THAT” it was in reference ONLY to Western Civilization and NOT to any previously stated evil ideology.
King explained likewise on the House floor, but that didn’t matter to the Left, which saw the chance to end the career of a hard-line conservative who backs tough border control. King stood his ground and refused to resign.
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Thus, in addition to passing a resolution that condemned “white supremacy,” two Democratic members of the House — Bobby Rush of Illinois and Tim Ryan of Ohio — proposed censuring King.
But their plans went down in flames. Top Democrats, Politico reported, were afraid their members would provide too many chances for Republicans to retaliate.
The webzine reported that the Democratic leader “quietly rejected” the idea. Very quietly is more like it.
“Behind the scenes, Democratic leaders, led by House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), were clear about their opposition, according to multiple Democratic lawmakers and aides,” Politico reported.
A Democratic aide told the webzine that “leadership has been full-court press on not bringing it up,” and Clyburn and Majority chief Steny Hoyer “were were warning rank-and-file members that going as far as censure could come back to harm Democrats.”
Democratic Candidates for Censure
Among the remarks that have come from Democrats are Muslim Representative Rashida Tlaib, a leftist Israel hater, who famously said of President Trump, “we’re gonna to impeach the motherf***er.”
Other possibilities abound. Just days ago, another Muslim congresswoman, Ilhan Omar, who is credibly accused of marrying her brother to perpetrate immigration fraud, suggested that Senator Lindsey Graham, the Republican from South Carolina, is “compromised,” a remark that carried the whiff of an accusation of homosexuality. And she ridiculed the Vice President with a “Jesus take the wheel” tweet.
Another possible subject is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who called President Trump a racist during her interview with 60 Minutes, and instructed the loons who support her nutty democratic socialism to “occupy every airport” until Immigration and Customs and Enforcement is shut down.
Democrats are right to worry that she could blurt out something as embarrassing as Tlaib.
Another candidate for censure might be Representative Maxine Waters, the Mouth from South Los Angeles, who has repeatedly called upon her disciples to publicly harass and intimidate Trump officials and supporters: “If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. You push back on them. Tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere!”
“If Steve King gets censured, all bets are off,” a House GOP aide told Politico. “If Democrats do force a censure vote for comments made outside the house floor, Democrats probably realize there are other things for us to look at it.”
Exactly.
Image: RYAN SAAVEDRA / Daily Wire
