″That language has no place in America,” McCarthy told Face the Nation this past weekend. “That is not the America that I know. And it’s most definitely not the party of Lincoln. Action will be taken. I’m having a serious conversation with Congressman Steve King on his future and role in this Republican Party.” Bullshit: Look at the actions, which have been to keep King on his committee assignments and give him anti-immigrant votes.
McCarthy hasn’t been the only Republican to hit ten on the bullshit-o-meter. King’s old pal, Sen. Ted Cruz, claimed that "what Steve King said was stupid. It was stupid, it was hurtful, it was wrong. And he needs to stop it." But King was Cruz’s 2016 presidential campaign co-chair, and when asked if he’d return the favor and support King in the future, he deflected, saying that “what I’m going to do is urge everyone to stand for principles that matter.” But the last time Cruz pulled that sort of crap was at Donald Trump’s convention, and he then voted for the motherfucker anyway.
Oh, sure, there’s been some other blowback from Republicans like Sen. Tim Scott, who penned an op-ed claiming that "King’s comments are not conservative views but separate views that should be ridiculed at every turn possible.” But it might be too late for that, now that the standard-bearer of the GOP is a man who has refused to condemn David Duke and called neo-Nazis “very fine people.” Meanwhile, McCarthy’s No. 2, Minority Whip Steve Scalise, confirmed in 2014 that he spoke to Duke’s white supremacist group, European-American Unity and Rights Organization, in 2002. It’s almost like the whole fucking party is rotten.
Now, this isn’t to say that punishing King wouldn’t be welcome. Expel the motherfucker; but seeing as that would take some courage from House Republicans to make up the needed two-thirds vote, King’s removal from committees and censure, which requires a simple majority vote, would be just fine too. But don't get it wrong: Congressional Republicans have tolerated King for years. It’s just finally catching up to them too.