In an email to supporters earlier this week, conservative firebrand Rep. Steve King (R-IA) compared himself to controversial Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson.

According to the Des Moines Register, King wrote “I have been in similar situations to the one Phil Robertson finds himself in now. I have learned to navigate [liberal] intolerance while holding firm to our values.” Robertson was briefly suspended recently from the A&E show Duck Dynasty after making a series of controversial statements in an interview with GQ, including that blacks were happier during Jim Crow, that Pearl Harbor happened because “Shintos” were in “a society where there is no Jesus” and “it seems like, to me, a vagina—as a man—would be more desirable than a man’s anus.” King has a history of making controversial remarks as well, notably stating that “For every [illegal immigrant] who’s a valedictorian, there’s another 100 out there who weigh 130 pounds—and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.”

In the Iowa congressman’s opinion, Robertson was being persecuted because he expressed opinions “contrary to views held by those with loud megaphones, including the liberal media and PC police…The leftists who disagree with him made it clear with their attacks that conservatives are to be driven from public life if they express their opinions, however objectively true they might be.”

King had previously tweeted his support for Robertson after A&E reinstated the reality show star, writing “Welcome back Phil of #DuckDynasty. “Fear God, hunt ducks and let the chips fall where they may.” And speak self evident truth.”

King was not the first political figure to weigh in the controversy as Vance McAllister, a Louisiana Republican elected to Congress with the Robertson family’s endorsement, as well as Bobby Jindal and Sarah Palin among others have also shared their thoughts on the furor.