US House Republicans censure colleague for racist remarks

US House Republican leaders delivered an extraordinary rebuke Monday to an Iowa congressman from their party over his recent remarks deemed as racist, with some calling for his resignation.

Steve King, whose comments last week about white supremacy sparked bipartisan outrage, will be stripped of all committee assignments, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's office said.

"Steve's remarks are beneath the dignity of the Party of Lincoln and the United States of America," McCarthy said.

"His comments call into question whether he will treat all Americans equally, without regard for race and ethnicity." King, a strong supporter of President Donald Trump, is an opponent of illegal immigration and unabashed defender of white culture.

In an interview last week with The New York Times, the 69-year-old asked how certain terms had become insulting or inappropriate.

"White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization -- how did that language become offensive?" said King in his latest in a long list of similar comments.

The outcry was comprehensive, with the Senate's lone black Republican, Tim Scott, delivering a withering attack on King and the "silence" within the Republican Party when such remarks are made.

Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell called the Iowa conservative "unwelcome and unworthy of his elected position." Others like Senator Mitt Romney went further, urging King to resign and leave the party.

Amid the uproar, President Donald Trump told reporters asking about his reaction to King, "I really haven't been following it." King has used explosive racial language for years, often without consequences.

In 2018 he declared that "we can't restore our civilization with other people's babies."