Newly re-elected Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King may be censured by Congress for his incendiary comments about immigrants — including referring to them as “dirt,” according to a report.
During a rally in Iowa a day before the midterm elections, the firebrand was recorded speaking about jalapeño peppers when he made the disparaging remark, according to The Weekly Standard.
“I guess I’m going to have to go and get some dirt from Mexico to grow the next batch,” King said, prompting a supporter to yell, “Trust me, it’s already on its way!”
“Well, yeah, there’s plenty of dirt, it’s coming from the West Coast, too, and a lot of other places, besides. This is the most dirt we’ve ever seen,” King said in response.
More than 140 organizations signed a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy to censure King’s “anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, racist and homophobic” language, according to ABC News.
Less than 50 days before Democrats take control of the House of Representatives, several told the network they agreed that King should be censured.
“The things that he says are so deeply unfair, disturbing and unbefitting of a member of Congress. And I do think that censure is appropriate,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash.
Congress can take a variety of actions to discipline its members for breaking House rules, including a fine, formal reprimand, censure or even expulsion.
Rep. Paul Tonko, D-NY, said he supports censure.
“I would get behind any effort to make certain that we begin to heal and not continue to hurt as a nation and be divided as a nation,” Tonko told ABC News.
“There’s a lot of healing that’s required and I think leadership requires us to be those healers,” he said.
A representative has not been censured since former New York Congressman Charles Rangel in 2010 after the Democrat was convicted of 11 ethics violations. The public reprimand carries no legal repercussions.
In 2013, King said about “Dreamers” – immigrants brought illegally to the US as children: “For every one who’s a valedictorian, there’s another 100 out there that they weigh 130 pounds, and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.”
Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., sidestepped the question of censure, but tied King’s rhetoric to President Trump’s hard-line stance against illegal immigration.
“Many of us, most of us, are really disturbed with the words that [have] come out of Steve King’s mouth, as well as the president’s,” Schakowsky told ABC.
