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4thDistrict Congressman Steve King’s remarks today to a conservative group in Urbandale about abortion and rape are being denounced by state and national leaders. They call to mind controversial comments King made last year about western civilization.
King was talking to the Westside Conservative Club in Urbandale about his anti-abortion heartbeat bill which makes no exceptions for rape or incest.
Then King asked what the population would look like if those exceptions were made through history.
What if we went back through all the family trees and just pulled those people out that were products of rape and incest? Would there be any population of the world left if we did that, considering all the wars and all the rape and pillage that's taken place?
Two of King’s Republican challengers in the 4th District said his comments are bizarre and play to his Democratic opponents. Woodbury County supervisor Jeremy Taylor said in a statement it puts King in the press for the wrong reasons. State Senator Randy Feenstra of Hull said that although he is also anti-abortion, King’s comments diminish the cause.
Sioux City’s JD Scholten, the Democrat who nearly upset King in 2018 and recently announced he is running again in 2020, also issued a statement, accusing King of having “selfish, hateful ideology” and “excusing violence.”
The comments also drew sharp criticism from several Democrats running for president.
Clean energy supporter Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller says the state won’t take part in a lawsuit against coal-fired power plants.
Miller says Governor Kim Reynolds blocked him taking that step.
