Washington, D.C. — Congressman Steve King has been saying for the past two weeks that he has an agreement with the Republican leader in the U.S. House to get his committee assignments restored — but an Ohio congressman who’s on the leadership team says King will not be serving on any committee.
House GOP leaders removed King from committees last year. It came shortly after a New York Times article quoted King asking why the terms white supremacy and white nationalism had become offensive. This is what King said on April 27th.
(as said) “Kevin McCarthy and I have reached an understanding,” King said, “and the only barrier in the way to putting back all my committees, perhaps incrementally as there are openings that can be created, is to get a formal meeting of the Steering Committee because they’re officially the ones that make that decision.”
King is seeking a 10th term in the U.S. House and faces four Republican challengers in the June Primary. He has repeatedly said he was misquoted and King chastised his opponents during a forum in Spencer on Monday night.
(as said) “You’re running on The New York Times and you’re running on no committee assignments,” King said. “Can anybody stand up and say it’s what I said or did that caused that to happen? That’s not on me. That’s on the people that made that decision and the ones that need to rectify it and you all should have stood up to defend me on that and you were nowhere to be found.”
Ohio Congressman Steve Stivers, a member of the House GOP Steering Committee, says he won’t allow hate and bigotry to influence the legislation passed in congress and King will not regain appointments to committees. Two weeks ago, King said his lack of committee assignments is an injustice that must be corrected immediately.
(as said) “Especially in the middle of this crisis that we’re in right now,” King says.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy has not responded to requests for comment. In January of 2019, when he announced King was being stripped of his committee assignments, McCarthy said King’s quotes in the New York Times were not the first time King had made offensive comments.
