Last week, archconservative publication Weekly Standard reported on an exchange between Republican white nationalist Rep. Steve King and his Iowa supporters in which they referred to immigrants as "dirt" coming from Mexico. It resulted in a tremendous hissy fit from King, who accused them of fabricating the conversation.
As it turns out Rep. Steve King very much said it, and in response to his denials and insults the Weekly Standard has now released the audio. Rep. Steve King had the conversation, Rep. Steve King knows damn well he had the conversation, and Rep. Steve King brazenly lied to the public afterwards because he is a lying and crooked man.
"I guess I'm going to have to go get some dirt from Mexico to grow the next batch," King says in the audio, apparently referring to peppers he had grown in his home garden.
"Trust me, it's already on its way," a female supporter responds, laughing.
"Well, yeah, there's plenty of dirt. And it's coming from the West Coast, too," King joked. "And a lot of other places, besides. This is the most dirt we've ever seen."
Just another Republican House member having a fun ol' time with his Iowa constituents who are super-duper not racist, because reasons.
Interestingly, King was alarmed enough by this conversation going public that he and his allies mounted a public fit to claim the conservative outlet was lying about it; that suggests the man who regularly retweets white nationalists and lends his support to European neo-Nazi groups believes that he still needs to at least pretend he's not doing that.
But he did, and he lied. He super-duper-duper lied, because he's crooked. His Iowa base still managed to save his hide last Tuesday, though, because somebody's got to have the most openly racist member of Congress and they're quite certain Iowa should have the title. Duly noted; I say we all chip in and buy them a trophy.