Rep. Steve King, a congressman from Iowa, doesn't like to shy away from espousing his, uh…unique views on race. Just last week, as the Washington Post points out, King found himself in the news for displaying the Confederate flag in clear view on his desk. He's also recently advocated blocking Harriet Tubman from appearing on the $20 bill. You get the picture.
In an interview with MSNBC Monday at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, King added yet another item to his recent list of headline-grabbing antics when he literally stated white people have contributed more to society than any other "sub-group" of people.
The full transcript, courtesy of Slate:
(CHARLIE) PIERCE: Tell you what, in that hall today, that hall is wired. That hall is wired by loud, unhappy, dissatisfied white people. Any sign of rebellion is going to get shouted down either kindly or roughly but that's what's going to happen.
KING: This whole business does get a little tired. I would ask you to go back through history and figure out where are these contributions that have been made by these other categories of people you are talking about. Where did any other subgroup of people contribute more to civilization? [N.b.: The "other people" the panelists had just been talking about were black Americans and Mexicans.]
(CHRIS) HAYES: Than white people?
KING: Than Western civilization itself. That's rooted in western Europe, eastern Europe and the United States of America, and every place where Christianity settled the world. That's all of Western civilization.
Seems like King decided to forgo the subtext this time.
Later, Hayes shared his thoughts on the moment:
Michael Rosen is a reporter for Fusion based out of Oakland.