House Republicans Strip Steve King of All Committee Assignments Over Racist Comments

House Republican leaders have just stripped Rep. Steve King of all his committee assignments, including the powerful Judiciary and Agriculture Committees, after the Iowa Republican Congressman made racist remarks that were published in The New York Times last week.

Rep. King “will not serve on any committees in 116th Congress, including his slot as Ranking Member on a Judiciary subcommittee,” The Hill‘s Scott Wong reports.

Monday night The New York Times reported Republican “party officials scrambled to appear tough on racism and contain damage from comments Mr. King.”

Their actions were not immediate, and in fact many top GOP leaders waited several days before denouncing King’s comments, although not his political beliefs or policies.

Democrats have already made clear there will be repercussions, with at least two House Democrats announcing they will file motions to censure King, and a third announcing a motion to rebuke him.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy met with Rep. King for an hour on Monday, and “called a special meeting of the Republican Steering Committee on Monday night to consider removing Mr. King from Judiciary — which has jurisdiction over immigration, voting rights and impeachment — and Agriculture, which is a prized committee for Iowans.”

Last week, in a lengthy New York Times interview King asked, “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?”

The Times notes that House Republicans attempting to be “proactive,” have already stripped King of other committee seats.

King, a nine-term Congressman who represents a district that is more than 95 percent white, is perhaps best-known for accusing undocumented immigrants of having “calves the size of cantaloupes” from “running drugs across the Mexican border.” He has a long history of racist and bigoted remarks.