House Republicans ramped up their ostracism of Rep. Steve King on Tuesday, with one party leader saying the Iowa Republican “should find another line of work” after remarks that were taken to be conciliatory toward white supremacists.
The GOP has stripped Mr. King of all of his committee posts, in a move Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said shows the seriousness with which the GOP views Mr. King’s history of controversy.
But Rep. Liz Cheney, the chair of the House Republican Conference, went further, saying it’s time the congressman left.
“I think he should find another line of work,” she said.
Mr. King has denounced the moves against him, calling his GOP colleagues’ ouster a “political decision” and insisting he has denounced white supremacy. He said the most recent comments to land him in hot water were taken out of context.
That did not stop the pile-on, which is likely to continue later Tuesday with a floor vote to reprimand Mr. King.
Mr. McCarthy, who only became the top Republican this year, said he moved quickly to deal with Mr. King.
“I wanted to make a statement,” he said — though he said it’s too early to decide whether the House GOP will support a primary challenge to defeat Mr. King in 2020.
Mr. McCarthy did say Democrats could stand a similar sort of house-cleaning among their own troops.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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