Rep. Steve King claimed on Thursday that he wasn’t concerned about losing his committee seats because Democrats currently control the House. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images congress Steve King says he has 'nothing to apologize for' after racist comments

Rep. Steve King of Iowa, who recently received national backlash for comments supporting white supremacy and white nationalists, said on Thursday that he wasn’t sorry and that he would run for reelection in 2020.

“I have nothing to apologize for,” King said during a recording of Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press,” after the host, David Yepsen, asked whether King was sorry for anything he’d said, according to the The Des Moines Register .


The episode will air Friday evening in Iowa.

King earlier this year came under fire after he questioned, during an interview with The New York Times, why the terms “white supremacist” and “white nationalist” had become offensive. The congressman since has repeatedly tried to distance himself from the comments and claimed he was misquoted.

Many of King’s fellow Republicans denounced his comments, including both of Iowa’s senators, Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley. Several of King’s colleagues went so far as to call for him to resign, as did the state’s largest paper, the Register, and the Sioux City Journal, a Western Iowa newspaper that is located in King’s 4th Congressional District.

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Republicans and Democrats in the House also approved a rare resolution rebuking King for his statements on white supremacy and white nationalists. In addition, he was removed from his committee assignments.

King, however, claimed on Thursday that he wasn’t concerned about losing his committee seats because of Democrats currently control the House.

“If there’s ever going to be a time not to have committee assignments, this time with Nancy Pelosi as the speaker of the House is the time,” he said, according to The Register.

Despite the public backlash nationally and from his colleagues, King said he would continue to seek reelection in 2020 for his 10th term. Three Republicans have already announced they will run against him in the primary.

“Don’t let the elitists in this country, the power brokers in this country, tell you who’s going to represent you in the United States Congress,” King said.

This article tagged under: Steve King

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