Rep. Steve King Gave an Interview to an Anti-Semitic Publication Right After Visiting Auschwitz

By Sophie Weiner | October 26, 2018 | 12:15am

Elections

The white nationalist, fascist Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King, who is defending his seat against Democrat J.D. Scholten in the upcoming midterms, apparently spent this August touring Auschwitz and listening to Holocaust survivors on the dime of Holocaust education organization From the Depths, according to Sludge. Immediately after the tour, King traveled to Austria to give an interview to a known anti-Semitic publication.

The trip to Poland was part of an effort to “learn more about the Holocaust and issues relating to the Holocaust” and to “further talk and debate on issues pertaining to the Holocaust,” according to a travel report filed with the House Clerk’s Office. The trip, which took place from Aug. 18 to Aug. 23, was funded by the From the Depths Foundation, a Holocaust education organization, who paid a total of $8,310 for King and his wife’s travel expenses.

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After taking a trip to Auschwitz, Hitler’s biggest and most well-known death camp, where at least a million Jews and other Nazi targets died, King continued on to Austria. One day after concluding his Holocaust history tour, on August 24th, he proceeded to give an interview to the far-right publication unzensuriert. Austrian intelligence officials say that the publication “promote[s] anti-Semitism and extreme xenophobia” and is tied to Austria’s far-right Freedom Party, who, according to Sludge, were “founded by a former Nazi officer and is currently run by a man who was previously affiliated with neo-Nazis.”

From Sludge:

In the interview, King espoused white nationalist talking points—including fears that Western people are being replaced by “other people’s babies”—and accused Jewish billionaire and Holocaust survivor George Soros of funding women’s rights protests in the U.S. King asked, “how do we produce the antidote to what George Soros is doing?”

Soros is one of the Democratic leaders who received an explosive device in the mail over the last two days.

This is far from King’s first encounter with white nationalists or outright Nazis. He recently endorsed the political campaign of Canadian white nationalist Faith Goldy who promotes the idea of “white genocide.” He’s also retweeted known Nazi-sympathizers.

After the initial revelations about King’s interview with the Austrian publication, Sludge reached out to 23 PACs who supported his candidacy, including AT&T, Valero, Koch Industries, and the American Bankers Association. Only one company, Berkshire Hathaway, commented, with the equivocating response, “We do not always agree with every position taken by the candidates we support.”

Scholten, a former professional baseball player from Sioux City, believes he can beat King, an eight-term incumbent, in the upcoming election. His campaign has far out-raised King again and again. According to The Nation, with less than two weeks to go until election day, Scholten’s internal polling puts him 6 points below King.