During a roundtable discussion regarding the uniformly white leadership of the Republican party, six-term congressman Steve King of Iowa declared that white people have contributed more to the advancement of human civilization than any other “sub-group of people”, igniting a firestorm from his fellow panelists that almost resulted in one of them walking off the set.

“This whole ‘white people’ business does get a little tired,” said King, a six-term congressman, referring to critiques that the homogeneity of Republican leadership has lead to GOP policies insensitive to racial and religious minorities.

Fellow panelist Charlie Pierce, a writer for Esquire, had declared that demographic realities imply that the 2016 election “is the last time that old white people will command the Republican party’s attention, its platform, and its public face”.

“I’d ask you to go back through history and figure out where these contributions that have been made by these categories of people that you’re talking about,” King said. “Where did any other sub-group of people contribute more to civilization?”

“Than white people?” asked host Chris Hayes.

“Than western civilization itself,” King responded, “which is rooted in western Europe, Eastern Europe and the United States of America, and every place where the footprint of Christianity settled the world. That’s all of western civilization.”

The set immediately broke into a torrent of denunciations from fellow panelists Pierce and April Ryan, Washington bureau chief for American Urban Radio Networks.

“What about Africa? What about Asia?” asked Ryan. “No, no, no, no, no.”

Hayes, attempting to moderate, told the panel that “we are not gonna argue the history of civilization”, and closed the segment by uneasily declaring: “On cable news, we are not going to resolve the relative strengths of various strands of civilizational prowess.”

Hayes tweeted after the incident that he was “taken aback” by the congressman’s statements, and that he should have allowed Ryan to respond:





1. I was pretty taken aback by Steve King's comments. I probably should've blown through beak and let @AprilDRyan respond. But... — Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) July 18, 2016

2. The entire notion of debating which race/civilization/ "sub group" contributed most or is best is as odious as it is preposterous. — Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) July 18, 2016

In a Periscope stream after the segment, Ryan said that she was “shaken” by the conversation, which she called “just in-my-face racism”.

King, who serves on the House agriculture and judiciary committees, has been criticized for prior statements and actions relating to race. He has supported racial profiling for police, invoked Barack Obama’s middle name – Hussein – as evidence that Islamic extremists would celebrate his election as president, and implied that fellow congressmen would not speak out against sharia law because of their Islamic faith.

The congressman also keeps a Confederate battle flag in his office, despite being from Iowa, which supported the Union in the American civil war.