Iowa Republican Congressmember Steve King made incendiary remarks about sexual violence Wednesday, asking whether without rape and incest, there would be “any population of the world left.”
King was speaking to a conservative group in a suburb of Des Moines, defending his proposed bill to outlaw abortion — without exceptions for rape and incest.
Rep. Steve King: “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 and whatever happened to culture after society?”
Congressmember King’s comments sparked a fresh round of calls for his resignation, not only from prominent Democrats and 2020 presidential hopefuls, but also from many Republicans. King has frequently shared racist posts on social media and has made allies of far-right politicians in Austria, Canada and the Netherlands. In January, House Republican leaders stripped King of his committee assignments after he praised white supremacy in an interview with The New York Times.