House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy has agreed to let Rep. Steve King formally make his case for why his committee assignments should be restored — but the controversial Iowa Republican wouldn’t be able to get his seats back until the next Congress, and only if his colleagues agree to it.
King — who was booted from his congressional panels last year after he defended white supremacy in an interview with The New York Times — suggested Tuesday that he and McCarthy (R-Calif.) had struck a deal for him to reassume his committee assignments.
But sources close to McCarthy said he agreed only to allow King to pitch the GOP steering committee on the idea at some point, and that it would only cover the Congress starting next year. The sources also said McCarthy has no intention of removing anyone from a panel to give King a seat.
“We will not be seating Steve King on any committees in the 116th Congress,” McCarthy told reporters last year.
King is facing a formidable primary challenge next month, after the nine-term incumbent fought off a competitive Democratic challenger in 2018. King has been itching to get his committee seats back; he once held a Judiciary subcommittee gavel and also served on the Agriculture Committee, which has jurisdiction over a range of issues important to his rural Iowa district.
“On April 20, Kevin McCarthy and I reached an agreement that he would advocate to the steering committee to put all of my committees back, all of my seniority,” King said at a candidate forum, according to the Sioux City Journal.
“When Congress comes back into session, when the steering committee can [come] together, I have Kevin McCarthy’s word that that will be my time for exoneration,” he said.
But King is unlikely to find a very receptive audience on the GOP Steering Committee.
Two Republicans on that panel have vowed to oppose King’s reinstatement. A spokesman for Republican Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming — who was one of the first Republicans to condemn King and called on him to step down from Congress — confirmed she would not support reassigning King to his committees.
And Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio) also vowed to never support King’s reinstatement.
“As long as I am a member of the Republican Steering Committee, I will not allow hate & bigotry to influence the legislation passed by Congress. He will not be serving on any committee,” Stivers tweeted.
Democrat Rep. Judy Chu agreed.
“Nothing has changed. Steve King is an unrepentant racist. The GOP was right to try to exclude him,” said Chu Wednesday in a tweet. “Giving him more power now just says they’re okay with it.”
King has been fighting GOP leaders ever since he was stripped of his committee assignments and formally condemned on the House floor, calling it a “political lynch mob.” King and a group of hard-line conservatives tried to round up signatures for a petition aimed at forcing leadership to reinstate King, but they were unsuccessful.
King has accused Republican leaders of deliberately exiling him to knock him out of Congress. King has a long history of controversial rhetoric that has consistently created headaches for leadership, but it wasn’t until his interview with the Times that party leaders decided to take disciplinary action.
King will face off against four Republican candidates — Randy Feenstra, Steve Reeder, Bret Richards and Jeremy Taylor — in the June 2 primary.