Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) is pointing a finger at former President Barack Obama for the attack on Republican lawmakers at a baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia, on Wednesday.
“I do want to put some of this at the feet of Barack Obama,” the congressman said in an interview with Simon Conway on WHO Iowa radio. “He contributed mightily to dividing us. He focused on our differences rather than our things that unify us. And this is some of the fruits of that labor.”
Earlier Wednesday, King stopped by the crime scene to pray and told The Washington Post: “America has been divided. And the center of America is disappearing, and the violence is appearing in the streets, and it’s coming from the left.”
He also echoed this sentiment on Twitter.
After the shooting, Obama called Sen. Jeff Flake (R- Ariz.), whom Obama maintained good relations with during his presidency, to send “best wishes and prayers to those injured,” Flake told the Los Angeles Times.
Although King does have a point about the nation being divided, he is clearly unaware that his own hateful rhetoric — especially toward people who are not white, Christian or U.S.-born — contributes to the divide.
In 2016, King said on “All In With Chris Hayes” on MSNBC that people who are white have contributed to civilization more than any other “subgroup.”
In March, he suggested that Muslim children were preventing “our civilization” from being restored.
And in April, when a King staffer failed to show up for a meeting with a Latina constituent who called him out for the runaround, he responded with a tweet that said, “Do you always lie in English?”
So, basically, take his comments with grain — or an ocean’s worth — of salt.
