Rep. Steve King Loses Bid to Block Harriet Tubman's Placement on $20 Bill

U.S. Representative Steve King, a Republican from Iowa, has lost his bid to block Harriet Tubman's placement on the $20 bill.

Earlier this week, King filed an amendment to an appropriations bill that would stop any money from being used to redesign American currency, according to the New York Times. In the process, he also tried to redefine racism and sexism.

"It's not about Harriet Tubman, it's about keeping the picture on the $20," King said in an interview with Politico. "Y'know? Why would you want to change that? I am a conservative, I like to keep what we have."

King continued that it would be racist and sexist to put Tubman on American currency. 

The U.S. Treasury Department announced in April that Tubman, the escaped slave and abolitionist who led people in bondage to freedom, would replace former President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. Plenty of people saw the move as a huge step forward for the country, but others piled on with their racist and sexist comments.

The irony of King's position didn't go unnoticed:

In fact, he's lobbed his own epithets. In 2013, he said that the children of undocumented immigrants were destined to become drug mules with "calves the size of cantaloupes."

Funny how he's suddenly sensitive to allegations of racism and sexism now that they suit his political agenda. 

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