Steve King is very happily doubling down on his white supremacist views

In case his weekend signal-boosting of a far-right, white nationalist Dutch politician didn’t drive the point home, Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King doubled down Monday morning on his racist, explicitly anti-immigrant remarks.

Asked during a CNN interview whether he stands by a tweet praising Geert Wilders, a face of the resurgent far-right in Europe, by saying, “We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies,” King said, “Well, of course I meant exactly what I said, as is always the case.”

King then launched into a boilerplate screed of white supremacist talking points:

I’ve been to Europe and I’ve spoken on this issue and I’ve said the same thing as far as ten years ago to the German people and to any population of people that is a declining population that doesn’t–and isn’t willing–to have enough babies to reproduce themselves.

And I’ve said to them, ‘You cannot rebuild your civilization with somebody else’s babies. You’ve got to keep your birth rate up and you need to teach your children your values. And in doing so, then you can grow your population and you can strengthen your culture, you can strengthen your way of life.

Let’s be clear here: talking about “somebody else’s babies” is only the most thinly veiled way to say “babies that aren’t white.” All of King’s hand-wringing about the declining birth rate, protecting Western civilization, and a monolithic version of American values is just ripped-from-The-Daily-Stormer white supremacy.

King’s kinship with Wilders, who has compared the Quran to Mein Kampf and called for an end to Muslim immigration to Europe and a ban on building mosques, is only the latest incarnation of the racist blather he’s been spewing for years.

It’s also worth repeating (again and again) that King was one of Donald Trump’s most fervent supporters during his presidential campaign, and bragged that he encouraged the president to meet with Wilders to talk about the demise of Western civilization.

But if Trump’s Muslim ban and flurry of xenophobic policies launched in his first 50 days in office are any indication, King’s message has already gotten through loud and clear.