Representative Steve King (R-IA) is at it again, with a new series of crazy accusations and bigoted statements. Earlier this year, we highlighted some of the most outrageous comments made by this far right Tea Party politician, and his recent remarks are more of the same.
From immigration reform to climate change, here’s more lunacy from Steve King.
Photo: Mark Taylor via Flickr.com
Climate Change Is A ‘Religion,’ Not A ‘Science’
A majority of Republicans believe climate change to be a complete hoax—but King takes it a step further.
During an event in Iowa on August 6, King told an audience, “[Global warming] is not proven, it’s not science. It’s more of a religion than a science.”
He even went on to say that scientists don’t have a real understanding of and method for measuring sea levels. “We don’t know where sea level is even, let along be able to say that it’s going to come up an inch globally because some polar ice caps might melt because there’s CO2 suspended in the atmosphere.”
Scientists — those who study this for a living — have been warning of the dangers of global warming for years, but like other facts, this has no bearing on King’s own beliefs and what he preaches to his constituents.
h/t: Think Progress
Photo: Gage Skidmore via Flickr.com
Global Warming Is Good For The Environment
Steve King has made a few recent statements clearly demonstrating that science may not be his best subject.
At a July event in Iowa, he said, “I know that the temperature of this Earth, if it went up, there’d be more evaporation of the 70 percent of the Earth that’s covered by water.” He continued, “So I know by Newton’s first law of physics, what goes up must come down. It’s got to come down in the form of rain, so if the Earth is warm, it’ll rain more and more places.”
To tie his point together, King declared, “I spent a lot of my life cold, it felt pretty good to get warmed up. So what would happen that might be good if the Earth got a little warmer? Well, we’d probably raise a little more corn.”
Penn State meteorology professor Michael Mann told MSNBC that King’s claims are completely off base. “Unfortunately, the congressman’s embarrassingly simplistic reasoning gets just about everything wrong,” he said. “He should stick to what he knows—whatever that is—and leave science to those who actually understand and respect it.”
h/t: MSNBC
Photo: Mikael Miettinen via Flickr.com
“Go Ahead And Defy The IRS”
Still running with the IRS ”scandal,“ King told an audience at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa to “defy the IRS” if the government agency challenges their right to “freedom of speech, religion, the press, the right to keep and bear arms,” to name a few.
During his speech, King preached about American exceptionalism and the idea of manifest destiny—he wanted to inspire the audience to understand and embrace the “foundation of this great country,” and caution against a government that aims to limit those freedoms. But in the end, what he did instead was give some bad advice.
“When we lean across our backyard fence, or when you step up to the pulpit or when you sit in the pew, when you profess the things that we believe in, and you’re a 501(c)3 and you’re afraid of the IRS, just go ahead and defy the IRS on that,” he said. “I’ll stand there with you. If we can’t preach the word in America, where can we preach it?”
h/t: Huffington Post
Photo: Des Moines Register video
Latino Immigrants Come From Violent Civilizations
Representative King coordinated a rally on Monday to take on his favorite issue—immigration reform. The event, titled “Stop Amnesty,” took place in Virginia and was expected to draw a large crowd. But it didn’t. Seung Min Kim, a reporter for Politico, estimated that only 50 to 60 people were in attendance.
During the rally, King made the claim that Latinos who come to the U.S. make our society more dangerous because of where they came from.
King said, “If you bring people from a violent civilization into a less-violent civilization, you’re going to have more violence, right? It’s like pouring hot water into cold water, does it raise the temperature or not?” And that was his anti-immigration argument—his case for banning amnesty without facts or data.
h/t: Think Progress
Photo: @seungminkim, Politico
Immigrants Are Still Drug Smugglers
During an interview with Newsmax in July, Steve King famously compared immigrants to drug smugglers, comparing their calves to cantaloupes. Referring to “DREAMers, ” King said, “Some of them are valedictorians—and their parents brought them in. It wasn’t their fault. It’s true in some cases, but they aren’t all valedictorians. They weren’t all brought in by their parents.”
“For everyone who’s a valedictorian,” he went on, “there’s another 100 out there who weigh 130 pounds—and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert. Those people would be legalized with the same act.”
What’s worse is that after being criticized for these statements by those in his own party — and a few petitions to strip King of his seat on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Policy — he continued to defend his claims.
In an interview with David Gregory on Meet The Press, King was asked if he stood by his opinions, despite the fact that they’d been debunked. He answered, “My numbers have not been debunked. I said valedictorians compared to people who would be legalized under the act that are drug smugglers coming across the border.”
“Where’s your compassion for the families who have lost their children, lost their family members that are buried today because we didn’t enforce immigration law? Do you understand that 80 to 90 percent of the illegal drugs consumed in America come from or through Mexico? Terrorists infiltrate through that border,” he said in the interview. King’s narrow and oblivious view on immigration seems to be based on this simplistic idea that we’re only talking about people who are smuggling drugs over the Mexican border.
Watch his appearance on Meet The Press:
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