This resolution requires the Clerk of the House of Representatives to revise the Congressional Record from January 15, 2019, to reflect that the following was stated and then reiterated on the House floor: "White Nationalist, White Supremacist,—Western Civilization, how did THAT language become offensive? Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?"
[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 789 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
116th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 789
Raising a question of the privileges of the House.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 10, 2020
Mr. King of Iowa submitted the following resolution; which was referred
to the Committee on House Administration
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Raising a question of the privileges of the House.
Whereas in a quote attributed to him by the New York Times, Congressman King is
alleged to have wondered when the phrases ``White nationalist, white
supremacist, Western Civilization'' became offensive, suggesting to some
that he does not view the first two terms as pejorative;
Whereas Congressman King has consistently disputed this interpretation,
maintaining that he was simply trying to ask when the phrase ``Western
Civilization'' had gained a pejorative connotation, an assertion that is
supported by the remaining section of the Times quote;
Whereas Congressman King says the conversation in which this quote is alleged to
happen was about the left's use of weaponized language: ``we discussed
the changing use of language in political discourse. We discussed the
worn out label `racist' and my observation that other slanderous labels
have been increasingly assigned to Conservatives by the Left, who
injected into our current political dialog such terms as Nazi, Fascist,
`White Nationalist, White Supremacist,--Western Civilization, how did
THAT language become offensive? Why did I sit in classes teaching me
about the merits of our history and our civilization?' . . . just to
watch Western Civilization become a derogatory term in political
discourse today.'';
Whereas notably, none of the context of the discussion which spawned the
``quote'' was included in the New York Times story. This context would
have added greater clarity to King's reported remarks, revealing that
his intention was to question the inclusion of ``WESTERN CIVILIZATION''
alone as a pejorative;
Whereas no tape of the interview with the New York Times exists and the paper
refuses to release the reporter's notes of the conversation;
Whereas the question that Congressman King is purported to have been responding
to has not been disclosed and neither the New York Times nor the
reporter has answered whether the question posed included the two odious
ideologies that were then alleged in the response, logically leading the
Congressman to repeat back the ideologies as they had been first posed
by the reporter;
Whereas the structure of the purported quote contextually only makes sense if
the reporter did in fact refer to those odious ideologies in the
question posed, in so doing leading Congressman King to repeat them back
as he pondered the question that was asked of him;
Whereas the content of the Times ``quote'' makes it clear that King was ONLY
talking about ``Western Civilization''. The ``quote'': ``White
Nationalist, white Supremacist, Western civilization--how did THAT
language become offensive? Why did I sit in classes teaching me about
the merits of our history and our civilization?'';
Whereas NOBODY IN AMERICA EVER SAT IN A CLASS about the merits of White
nationalism or White supremacism. The incorrect interpretation that has
been given to this ``quote'' refutes itself based on the ``quoted''
sentence's own construction;
Whereas, on January 18th, 2019, Mark Steyn was quoted as saying ``He made a
mistake, Steve King. He agreed to give an interview on national
immigration policy to the New York Times. That's not a good faith
interview request. They're only asking you, and he should know this,
they're only asking you to stitch you up. To talk to you for three hours
and get you to use one phrase in there that they can lift out and kill
you with . . . This guy, Steve King, was trapped, trapped! The words he
said about `when did that become controversial', he meant the phrase
`Western Civilization'. He's not a white supremacist. He's not a white
nationalist. It's all stupid talk. So you've just surrendered the phrase
`Western Civilization'. I don't get that. I don't see what's in it for
conservatism in surrendering that phrase, in accepting the leftist's
view that the term `Western Civilization' is beyond the pale.'';
Whereas contemporaneous evidence supports King's version of the story: In a
Christian Science Monitor (CSM) article published on January 15, 2019 (5
days after the Times story broke), King is quoted making a similar
argument: ``In a conversation with the Monitor just before the holidays,
King defended himself against accusations of racism. The left, he says,
has weaponized terms like `racist', `Nazi' and `white nationalist' using
them against anyone who dares to defend American values or the
Constitution. `There are people that don't like America the way it is',
he says, `and there are people that don't like America when she was at
her best. They want to tear down the systems we have. I don't believe
that. I think our Founding Fathers got it right.'.'';
Whereas this CSM interview occurred prior to the release of the Times article,
and shows how King had been making a variation of this argument at the
approximate time he spoke to the Times reporter. In this case, though,
the CSM actually published it in the context in which it was made. It is
clear that King was making a similar argument to the Times;
Whereas the quote in the CSM is the FIRST DOCUMENTED INSTANCE of Steve King ever
using the phrase ``white nationalist''. This is an important point,
because King has asserted ``That ideology never shows up in my head. I
don't know how it could possibly come out of my mouth.''. A Lexis-Nexis
search dating back to 2000 shows King has never used any of the
following phrases: ``white nationalism'', ``white nationalist'', ``white
supremacist'', or ``white supremacy''. In the same time frame, King is
quoted 276 times using the term ``Western Civilization'';
Whereas based on this data, it appears unlikely that King spontaneously used the
phrases ``white nationalist'' and ``white supremacist'' in his
discussion with the Times reporter, as they were never common elements
of his speech. It suggests that King was repeating terms fed to him by
the Times;
Whereas the contention that King reacted to the Times reporter's use of the
phrases ``white nationalist'', ``white supremacist'', and ``western
civilization'' as pejoratives is supported by the body of the Times
article itself;
Whereas the article contains the following passage, likely written prior to the
King interview: ``Elected to Congress in 2002, Mr. King attracted the
attention of hate-watch groups like the Anti-Defamation League as he
spoke increasingly about preserving `Western Culture' or `Western
Civilization'. The groups consider those buzzwords that signal support
to white nationalists, along with an obsession with birthrates and
abortion rates among different ethnic groups.'' Doesn't it make more
sense that the reporter asked a question in which ``Western
Civilization'' was linked with the offensive epithets, and King
responded by wondering how it came to be that the meritorious phrase
``Western Civilization'' became a similar pejorative? Certainly, the
answer he is alleged to have given fits with this belief;
Whereas the point King was attempting to make about the left's use of labels to
smear conservatives, labels which now include even the concept of
``Western Civilization'' itself, is supported by Lexis-Nexis data.
Beginning in 2016 there has been an explosive increase in the use of the
labels ``White Supremacist'', ``White Supremacy'', ``White
Nationalist'', and ``White Nationalism''. This squares closely with what
Congressman King told Dave Price of WHO-TV regarding the phrase ``White
Nationalist'': ``It is a derogatory term today. I wouldn't have thought
so maybe a year or two or three ago. Today they use it as a derogatory
term, and it implies that you are a racist.'';
Whereas in his statement, King was trying to put into words his entirely
accurate observation that the term ``white nationalist'' has been
weaponized by the left against conservatives, and that its use in this
form has markedly increased over the past several years;
Whereas King's point about the increased frequency with which the weaponized
term ``white nationalist'' has been injected into modern political
dialogue is evident when data from a Lexis-Nexis News Database search is
analyzed and we learn that White nationalist was virtually an unused
term prior to 2016, and quickly surged to 31,057 usages in the year
2017;
Whereas as King told Price, it has only been in the last ``year or two or
three'' that the pejorative phrase ``white nationalist'' has gained
purchase in the political debate as a weaponized term;
Whereas a follow up New York Times story about Steve King entitled ``A Timeline
of Steve King's Racist Remarks and Divisive Actions'' was criticized by
legendary journalist Brit Hume as being ``completely bogus''. This
``completely bogus'' story was written the next day by the same writer,
in the same paper, on the same general topic, and could possibly be
revealing of a bias regarding Congressman King;
Whereas the Congressional Record made the exact same error as the New York Times
in transcribing King's January 15, 2019, floor statement, when the
transcriptionist left out a break between the words ``white
supremacist'' and ``western civilization''. Video shows King
intentionally inserting a break between those words, but the transcript
does not reflect this;
Whereas no one believes the Congressional Record was acting with animus. But
their error did reveal how either a similar error, or an intentional
misplacement of punctuation, could have led to a botched quote in the
Times. Remember, King has always disputed the quote as it was portrayed
in the Times;
Whereas King is insisting upon a correction in the Congressional Record so that
it reflects the quote as he intentionally delivered it on the House
floor. King's correction reveals that he was attempting to separate
``Western Civilization'' from the other two pejorative terms;
Whereas this is the New York Times/Congressional Record's mistaken quote:
``White Nationalist, White Supremacist, Western Civilization--how did
THAT language become offensive? Why did I sit in classes teaching me
about the merits of our history and our civilization?'';
Whereas this is the corrected quote: ``White Nationalist, White Supremacist,--
Western Civilization, how did THAT language become offensive? Why did I
sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our
civilization?'';
Whereas one misplaced hyphen in the New York Times story gave birth to a
meritless controversy, by falsely implying that Congressman King did not
differentiate between the three phrases;
Whereas Congressman King was railroaded over a false quote. To believe the
version of events relied upon by Kevin McCarthy to strip King of
committee assignments, one must believe that an unreasonable but
``sensational'' interpretation, for which no evidence exists, is more
likely to be accurate than a reasonable, ``noncontroversial''
interpretation which is internally supported by context clues and
externally supported by data and other contemporaneous, published
accounts. One must also believe that the New York Times, a hostile,
liberal paper which has had other articles about Congressman Steve King
written by the same author thoroughly debunked as ``completely bogus'',
set aside its animus in this particular case;
Whereas clause 1 of rule IX defines questions of privileges of the House as
``those affecting the rights of the House collectively, its safety,
dignity, and the integrity of its proceedings.''. Subjects giving rise
to questions of the privileges of the House include the integrity of the
Journal, the protection of House records and files, and the accuracy of
House documents and records; and
Whereas the mistaken quote, as also mistakenly recorded in the Congressional
Record, reflects directly on both the House's dignity and integrity:
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Clerk of the House of Representatives shall
correct the Congressional Record from January 15, 2019, online and in
print, to reflect what was originally stated and then reiterated on the
House floor: ``White Nationalist, White Supremacist,--Western
Civilization, how did THAT language become offensive? Why did I sit in
classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our
civilization?''.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on House Administration.
Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR H294)
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