Iowa Republican Congressman Steve King lost all committee posts following his comments last week in which he asked why the terms "white nationalist" and "white supremacist" were offensive.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican minority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, said Monday night that King will not be given committee assignments in the Congress that began this month and will be will be blocked from committee assignments for the next two years, according to AP.
King's comments were “beneath the dignity of the Party of Lincoln and the United States of America," McCarthy said, asserting that the comments “call into question whether he will treat all Americans equally, without regard for race and ethnicity."
“House Republicans are clear: We are all in this together, as fellow citizens equal before God and the law.”
“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” King said in a New York Times profile last week. “Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?”
King later said he rejects “those labels and the evil ideology they define,” but the damage was done. The entirety of the GOP House leadership condemned the remarks, as did the Republican Jewish Coalition.