Scolds House GOP

Rep. Steve King scolds House GOP members for not backing Trump

By Louis Nelson

Rep. Steve King’s choice to stick with Donald Trump through his campaign’s latest dive into the gutter “is not a hard decision,” the congressman said Monday morning, and those Republicans abandoning their party’s presidential nominee are making a mistake.

King (R-Iowa) said Trump’s remarks on a 2005 recording, in which Trump describes his efforts to have sex with a married woman and his belief that his own celebrity allowed him to make unwanted sexual advances towards women, should not be defended. But he also said “I wouldn't say none of us have [made similar statements] back in college years” and added that nobody, “including Donald Trump,” would defend such remarks.

Still, the choice for King remains clear despite Trump’s vulgar remarks because of the alternative, Democrat Hillary Clinton. The Iowa conservative compared the up or down votes he casts on the House to the one he’ll cast in November’s general election, when he can vote only “yes” on one of the candidates. Given the options, King said, his support for Trump is easy to explain.

“I look at the two candidates. Which one will move the agenda in the right direction, which one will move the agenda in the completely wrong direction? That's our choice. We only get to vote yes,” he told CNN’s “New Day” Monday morning. “This is not a hard decision. It's a binary decision. It's either -- it's a yes vote. And it's either yes for Hillary Clinton or yes for Donald Trump. I can defend that all of my lifetime. I'm hopeful that have a lot of my colleagues will see that the same way.”

The Iowa congressman’s decision to stick with Trump puts him at odds with a swelling wave of Republicans who have either distanced themselves from the GOP nominee or withdrawn their support all together. It is a list that includes Sen. John Thune, Sen. John McCain, Sen. Kelly Ayotte, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, Rep. Mia Love, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, amongst many others.

Perhaps the biggest GOP defector from Trump thus far has been House Speaker Paul Ryan, who told Republican lawmakers during a conference call Monday that they should “do what’s best for you in your district” when it comes to supporting the party’s nominee. He said he will not campaign with Trump for the rest of the election cycle, nor will he defend him. Instead, Ryan said he will focus his attention on protecting the Republican majority in the House.

King said the decision by Ryan and others to abandon Trump could not only put Clinton in the White House, but also aid Democratic Senate and Congressional candidates across the country.

“I'm hearing from some of my Republican colleagues and some of the leadership that they're not really telling me how they're going to vote. They just say they're not going to actively support and campaign for Donald Trump. I think that's a mistake. I think that drags the entire ticket down,” he said. “I would ask them on the other side of this argument, what does it do to your integrity if you help Hillary Clinton become president?”