Jesse Yomtov

USA TODAY Sports

No stranger to controversial comments, Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King spoke out against protests by San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, going as far as to say Kaepernick's silent protests are "activism that's sympathetic to ISIS."

“When he steps out on the stage, the world stage, he’s taking advantage of that and he’s undermining patriotism,” King said during an interview on NewsmaxTV.

"I understand that he has an Islamic girlfriend that is his fiancée and that this has changed him and has taken on some different political views along the way,”

After alluding to Kaepernick's girlfriend Nessa Diab, the seven-term congressman said "this is activism that's sympathetic to ISIS."

49ers' Colin Kaepernick on protest: 'I don’t want to kneel forever'

During the Republican National Convention in July, King created an uproar by asserting that white people have contributed more to the advancement of human civilization than any other "sub-group of people."

"This 'old white people' business does get a little tired," King said during a panel on MSNBC. "I'd ask you to go back through history and figure out, where are these contributions that have been made by these other categories of people that you're talking about, where did any other subgroup of people contribute more to civilization?"