In an interview with an Iowa newspaper this week, Rep. Steve King suggested that gay people as well as those who are divorced and cohabiting will have unfavorable prospects in the afterlife, saying, “I’ll just say that what was a sin 2,000 years ago is a sin today, and people that were condemned to hell 2,000 years ago, I don’t expect to meet them should I make it to Heaven.”

The comment was quickly picked up by outlets like Talking Points Memo and Salon, so when King visited the “Steve Malzberg Show” today, Malzberg gave him the opportunity to clarify his comments.

In response, King simultaneously stood by what he said and claimed that the story was “false” and had been “fabricated.”

“What I said was it’s between them and God. And I said what was a sin 2,000 years ago is a sin today. That was what I said. And I stand on what I said, and they’ve manufactured this,” he insisted.

He added a dig at the people who had reported the story: “So maybe I won’t meet the people who distort the truth in the next life either, and I’m going to do my best to get to Heaven.”