Below is statement from DCCC Spokesman Jermaine House on Speaker Ryan and House Republicans refusal to disavow the racist remarks of the Members of the Republican Caucus:
“Disparaging the Congressional Black Caucus, whose members have fought for years for greater inclusion and rights for African Americans, is a new low even for Congressman Steve King,” said Jermaine House of DCCC. “This racist language has no place in the political discourse of our nation’s leaders. If Speaker Ryan and House Republicans don’t take responsibility to quickly disavow this dangerous rhetoric, they risk sending a signal to the rest of America that these types of attacks are tolerated within the Republican Party.”
Below are a few quotes from Buzzfeed today, where Congressman Steve King attacked the CBC and African American reporter April Ryan:
“And now we’ve got the Congressional Black Caucus here in Washington, DC, today will be leading a protest and they have declared Donald Trump to be a racist. Now, why are they the authority on that.. I call them the self-segregating caucus, and so, they long ago moved away from the integration that we really need in this country”
“I think of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, when we had a story where I defended western civilization and a lady who was on the panel, I think her last name is Flynn, I think it’s April Flynn and she’s African-American,” King said.
“She approached me at the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame a day or two later, with her tape recorder — it was one of those things you call a media ambush — and so, she began to call me a racist,” he added. “And I said, ‘use that word again, again, again, say it a million times. You’re devaluating the effect of it. You’ve got no basis of it because you’ve got more melanin in your skin does that give you the right to call me a racist?’”