Rep. Steve King Laughingly Says Muslims Should Be Forced To Eat Pork

Amy Russo
Updated

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), whose bid for a 10th term has been left high and dry by donors following his continuing series of racist and misogynistic remarks, added yet another offense to the list on Tuesday, endorsing efforts to force Muslims to eat pork.

During a town hall event in his district, King laughed while speaking about the alleged abuses of Muslims in China, who have been rounded up and detained by the government in a crackdown on the nation’s ethnic Uighur minority and other Islamic groups, according to the United Nations.

“They want them to put on Chinese clothing and eat Chinese diet, which includes trying to force the Muslims to eat pork,” King said. “That’s actually the only part of that that I agree with is, everybody ought to eat pork. If you have a shortage of bacon, you can’t be happy.”

Under the rules of Islam, Muslims are forbidden from eating pork. Iowa, meanwhile, is the top pork-producing U.S. state

King scorned Islam’s dietary restrictions in a 2018 Breitbart interview during which he said he did not want his district’s meatpacking plants to employ Somali Muslims because, he claimed, they see consumers as “infidels” who should be sent to hell.

“I don’t want people doing my pork that won’t eat it, let alone hope I go to hell for eating pork chops,” he said.

A growing list of outrages by the 70-year-old King ― which include defending white supremacy, promoting neo-Nazis on Twitter and disparaging Hurricane Katrina victims ― has left his latest re-election campaign in a heavily Republican district nearly broke. The House GOP caucus stripped him of his committee assignments in the current congressional session, and political action committees and fellow GOP politicians have closed their pocketbooks to him.

But his dwindling support hasn’t prompted him to change. At an Iowa gathering earlier this month, he questioned whether the human race would exist if it weren’t for incest and rape, the Des Moines Register reported. He made the comment discussing his opposition to abortion rights even for those impregnated by rape or incest.

His comments sparked bipartisan backlash ― hardcore conservative Rep. Liz Cheney, the third-ranking House Republican, said he should “find another line of work.” But King, in typical fashion, doubled down, demanding an apology from the “vibrant left-wing media” that he blamed for fueling the controversy.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.