Technology corporation Intel has dropped its support for Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), an eight-term congressman who has been expressing racist beliefs in increasingly undisguised terms.
In an internal email sent last week, Dawn Jones, Intel’s director of policy and external partnerships, told employees that the company would no longer donate to King’s re-election campaign after it looked into his “public statements and determined they conflict with Intel values.” Intel had already donated $2,000 to King’s 2018 campaign.
A spokesperson for Intel on Monday confirmed the accuracy of Jones’ email to HuffPost but declined to comment further. King’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment for this article.
Earlier this month, HuffPost reported on a shocking interview that King gave in August with an Austrian far-right propaganda site. In that interview, King discussed his belief in the superiority of European culture over others and pushed various white nationalist talking points. Last week King also endorsed Faith Goldy, Toronto’s white supremacist candidate for mayor.
King has long promoted white nationalist views without any consequence from the GOP. The Iowa congressman has followed and retweeted neo-Nazis, called for the U.S. government to spy on mosques, vilified Latinos by repeating false claims that over a quarter of violent crimes in the U.S. are committed by undocumented immigrants, and called for the defense of “Western civilization.”
Despite King’s deep ties to white supremacists and his history of espousing racist views, the Republican National Committee and Republican politicians have largely turned a blind eye to his behavior. King is also still receiving donations from major companies such as AT&T, Land O’Lakes, Berkshire Hathaway and others.
This article has been updated with Intel’s comments.