Steve King Vows to Fight GOP Over Exile

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, says he will battle the GOP in an effort to get his committee assignments reinstated, Politico is reporting.

However, he is finding little support from his colleagues nearly six months after he was booted off the panels for racist remarks, according to the website.

"It was a political lynch mob," King said. "I had to let the blood cool. And the blood has now cooled, and now they don't want to be faced with the reality of what they've done."

And he added: "They think if they can keep the subject tamped down, that eventually it goes away. But each day that goes by, my patience gets thinner and thinner. And that means, then, that I have to turn this up."

King was stripped of his committee assignments earlier this year. The action came after he told The New York Times: "White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?" 

And last week he was quoted as saying that presuming all cultures are equal devalues the "founding fathers."

A small group of conservatives has been trying to round up signatures for a petition to get King back on the committees. But Politico noted the move is a "long-shot effort."

And, according to Politico, Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., urged those at a Republican conference meeting Tuesday to reinstate King on the committee. But lawmakers quickly moved onto another issue.

• Dem House Member Blasts Rep. Steve King as White Supremacist
• Steve King Applauded at First Iowa Event Since House Rebuke