Thread: Boehner, Cantor chastise Rep. King drug-runner comment

Boehner, Cantor chastise Rep. King drug-runner comment

By United Press International July 24, 2013 12:25 pm

Top House Republicans chastised Rep. Steve King, R-IA, for saying some children brought to the country illegally by their parents become drug-runners.

Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday King's comments were "wrong" and could overwhelm House Republican efforts to overhaul immigration laws, Politico reported.

"There can be honest disagreements about policy without using hateful language," Boehner said in a statement Tuesday. "Everyone needs to remember that."

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the No. 2 House Republican, said he "strongly" disagreed with King's "characterization of the children of immigrants and finds the comments inexcusable."

Cantor is working on a bill that would legalize young undocumented immigrants.

King said in an interview last week with Newsmax a large number of immigrants brought into the United States illegally as children were smuggling drugs into the country.

"Some of them are valedictorians, and their parents brought them in," King said. "It wasn't their fault. It's true in some cases, but they aren't all valedictorians. They weren't all brought in by their parents."

"For everyone who's a valedictorian, there's another 100 out there that weigh 130 pounds and they've got calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert," King said. "Those people would be legalized with the same act."

During in a hearing Tuesday by a House panel specifically convened to examine legalization for young undocumented immigrants, Rep. Joe Garcia, D-Fla., criticized King's remarks as "inflammatory" and "offensive."

"When members of this committee -- when members of this House -- use inflammatory language, use offensive language, it does not help the progress," Garcia said.

When King spoke, he declined to address his comments or respond to Garcia's remarks, Roll Call said.

In an interview with Radio Iowa, he said he got the physical description from law enforcement, Roll Call said.

"It's not something that I'm making up. This is real," King said during the radio interview. "We have people that are mules, that are drug mules, that are hauling drugs across the border and you can tell by their physical characteristics what they've been doing for months, going through the desert with 75 pounds of drugs on their back.

"[If] those who advocate for the if they choose to characterize this about valedictorians, I gave them a different image that we need to be thinking about because we just simply can't be passing legislation looking only at one component of what would be millions of people."
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http://www.gopusa.com/news/2013/07/2.../?subscriber=1

Hateful language? What kind of crack are Cantor and John Boehner smoking? Steve King told the truth! Many illegal aliens that helped carry drugs into America for discounts from the cartels on their border crossing fees would receive AMNESTY under the legislation that Boehner and Cantor are trying to help Obama pass!

W

I think it is fake outrage for press coverage and I think they are foolish men. JMO

Republicans’ Steve King problem

By Rachel Weiner,
Published: July 24

If there was any doubt about how determined Republicans are to make inroads with Hispanic voters, just look at the reaction to Rep. Steve King’s claim that many undocumented high school graduates are “hauling … marijuana across the desert.”

The Iowa Republican’s comments, made in a Newsmax interview last week, surfaced Tuesday on liberal blogs. Rather than dismiss the controversy as a distraction, House GOP leaders have come out in force to condemn their colleague. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) called them “wrong” and “hateful,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) “inexcusable.”

King is undeterred. “When people start calling you names, that’s what confirms you’ve won the debate,” he said Wednesday. His goal: to derail a Republican version of the DREAM Act, which would legalize illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and graduated high school.

So King won’t back down, and his intransigence shows how treacherous immigration reform is for Republicans. The closer the party moves to passing real reform and beginning to repair its relationship with the Latino community, the angrier opponents within the GOP will get — and the more likely they are to make comments that can be used in Democratic attacks.


There’s particular danger in a drawn-out debate over immigration reform. The more methodical the House deliberations are, the more opportunity for reform opponents to make incendiary comments. And until House Republicans come out with a bill (or series of bills) there will be nothing but words to define the GOP effort.

Comments like King’s are especially damaging if reform fails, and Republicans are left to make the case that they tried to pass it in good faith. A major hurdle Republicans face with Hispanic voters isthe empathy gap. By a 50-point margin, Latino voters say the Democratic Party has more concern than the Republican Party for Latinos.

It’s hard for Republicans to completely distance themselves from King because there’s agreement with some of his concerns — though not his rhetoric. A King-sponsored measure to defund an executive order styled after the DREAM Act passed the House last month with all but six Republican votes.

There’s been some talk among anti-reform conservatives that the GOP cannot and should not attempt to win over Latinos, who, the argument goes, are inclined towards the Democratic Party regardless.

For some, King and the reaction to him are just more evidence that granting illegal immigrants a path to citizenship is no panacea for the party.

“If amnesty passed today, Steve King would still very much be around tomorrow,” the Washington Examiner’s Conn Carroll wrote.

King himself would want GOP leaders to reach the same conclusion, but a majority of House Republicans want to work on the issue, even if they don’t agree on how. He can’t change that. But he can make the process as painful as possible.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...-king-problem/

Boehner is a yes man, someone who has risen above his level of competency(peter principal) and has great fear of losing standing in DC so rather then defend the people he goes along to get along. Far to many like this in the GOP.

http://www.alipac.us/f12/along-key-s...-drugs-284367/

I'm outraged by Kings remarks and think we should remove him from office immediately. Put him someplace useful for a change! Maybe King 2016 for President? I'd donate big for that!

But yah seriously. We need King in the White house. Maybe make him a running mate with Allen West, these 2 could get a lot done.

"For everyone who's a valedictorian, there's another 100 out there that weigh 130 pounds and they've got calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert," King said. "Those people would be legalized with the same act."


Absolutely God Dam right. I suggest Cantor & Boehner go down to the border and talk to some Ice Agents & Border Patrol Personel before critizing a fellow Republican. Steve King has the guts to tell the truth, hasen't bowed down to the open borders lobby and has American interest at heart. Cantor & Boehner can go to hell.