Steve King, who can't stop saying racist things, just predicted a race war

Impact

Rep. Steve King, the Iowa Republican who made white supremacist remarks about "somebody else's babies" over the weekend, was back at it again Monday, prophesying about a coming race war between "Hispanics and the blacks."

His comments came during an interview with an Iowa radio host on 1040 WHO, who asked King what he thought about Univision anchor Jorge Ramos' comments that white Americans would be a minority demographic in the United States by 2044.

King said it was more likely that "Hispanics and the blacks will be fighting each other" before white people become a minority in America.

"Jorge Ramos' stock in trade is identifying and trying to drive wedges between race. Race and ethnicity, I should say to be more correct. When you start accentuating the differences, then you start ending up with people that are at each other's throats. And he's adding up Hispanics and blacks into what he predicts will be in greater number than whites in America. I will predict that Hispanics and the blacks will be fighting each other before that happens."

King came under fire for his xenophobic comments about Muslim immigrants over the weekend with his tweet Sunday. "We can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies," King tweeted.

He doubled down on those comments on Monday, telling CNN, "[I] meant exactly what I said."

"You cannot rebuild your civilization with somebody else's babies," King told CNN's Chris Cuomo. "You've got to keep your birth rate up, and you need to teach your children your values."

A handful of Republicans in Congress condemned King's remarks, including Florida Reps. Carlos Curbelo and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, however, said Monday night to Fox News that King "misspoke."

"I'd like to think — and I haven't spoken to Steve about this — I'd like to think that he misspoke and it wasn't really meant the way that that sounds, and hopefully he's clarified that," Ryan told Fox News' Bret Baier. 

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi blasted Ryan for his response to King's comments, saying in a statement that, "the tepid, brush-off response from the Speaker and the GOP leadership is disgraceful."

"Where are Speaker Ryan and the GOP leadership?" Pelosi said in her statement. "Does their silence mean Congressman Steve King's vile racism is acceptable? House Republicans think they can keep quiet, but their contempt for the great diversity of our nation is being heard loud and clear."

March 14, 2017 1:52 p.m.: This story has been updated