'It's never been about race, it's about culture': A conversation with Steve King

At the conclusion of his visit with ELM Founder and President Lou Honary on Friday, Congressman King took questions on a wide range of issues, from recent developments within the fourth district to his penchant for inciting controversy with his remarks on illegal immigration. His responses, which have been condensed for clarity, are printed below.
 
On President Trump’s efforts to curtail illegal immigration…
King: He’s moving in the right direction on the wall… I’ve got a positive viewpoint on that. Jeff Sessions at the Attorney General’s office, he’s also very solid. The weak part is President Trump’s promise to end the DACA (Deferred Action for Child Arrivals) program and the DAPA (Deferred Action for Parents of Americans) program— which is held up, and the courts have frozen it right now—but they’re both unconstitutional.
 
The president needs to follow through with his promise on DACA and DAPA, and my mission for over 30 years has been to restore the respect for the rule of law at least with respect to immigration law. You can’t have an unconstitutional policy, DACA, and be issuing new permits and extending existing permits and still have the rule of law.
 
We have to decide whether we’re going to sacrifice the rule of law and let our hearts overrule our heads, or if we’re going to let our heads prevail (and) restore the rule of law. That means that the people that are here unlawfully need to go to the countries where they can be lawfully present. That happens to put them in a place where they can get in the back of the line and apply to come into America the legal way, and that’s not cruel punishment. That’s as merciful as we can be and still sustain the rule of law.
 
On the revelation in the Des Moines Register that his Democratic opponent, Kim Weaver, ran an online psychic service…
King: I read the article, and I spent about an hour trying to decide how to comment. After an hour of serious evaluation, it seemed like it was something that screamed out for a response, but yet no response seemed right. So I guess I’ll say that’s hers to carry, and it’s interesting that it hit (at) the time it did. I did know this, and I’ve known it for over a year. When we had looked at that, we thought, we don’t need to touch that; that one can take care of itself.
 
On Storm Lake Times editor Art Cullen, one of his fiercest critics, winning a Pulitzer Prize…
King: I’ve let Art wail away over the years, and Art is Art. I would say this: I recall when Mary Lou Freeman was a state senator from Storm Lake, we went together to a diversity get-together picnic dinner, and it was just a matter of doing outreach, being out there and being available to constituents. So she and I walked in there and joined that diversity event, and it was fine. I’m glad we went, but I saw the article that Art wrote, which was “Steve King walked in to this place and said ‘I nearly choked on my egg roll.’”
 
And I just say that that creates divisions between people, and we don’t need that. So, the career of creating divisions between people while he professes to want the opposite, I guess that’s the qualifier for a Pulitzer. 
 
Read the rest of the interview in this week's Grundy Register, or subscribe by calling (319) 824-6958 or clicking here.