Congressman Steve King (R-IA) went on Univision on Friday and refused to apologize for comparing immigrants to “a good bird dog.” Because according to King, comparing immigrants to “a good bird dog” was actually a compliment. Or something.
Transcript via ABC
JR: You recently compared immigrants to dogs.
SK: No I didn’t, that’s a mischaracterization.
JR: Actually you, in a town hall meeting…
SK: Look at the original source. That didn’t happen.
JR: I read it. And many people found it offensive.
SK: Did you watch the video? People write things on the internet all the time. But did you watch the video, the full video? That speech was about celebrating legal immigration…
JR: It was not a celebration.
SK: … And anyone that understands the language and the culture knows that if they saw the video.
JR: In a town hall meeting in Iowa, you actually compared immigrants to dogs. And many people would find that offensive and racist.
SK: I thought you would probably repeat yourself on that. I told you if you watch that video you would know that was a speech celebrating legal immigrants. Legal, not illegal immigrants. Legal immigrants. And I said they are the cream of the crop. It’s the vigor of America that comes because people of all donor civilizations on the planet want to come here. They dream. We get the best ….
JR: So you don’t want to apologize because of that comment?
SK: … that every country has to offer because of that. That was the speech. And it has been mischaracterized by people on the left. It’s been intentionally and dishonestly done so to drive wedges between people on the basis of race …
JR: So you actually…
SK: … I think it’s a sin to do that, Jorge.
JR: So from your point of view, you actually did not compare immigrants to dogs?
SK: I said that speech was about the vigor of legal immigration. It was a very complimentary speech and no I did not do that.
JR: I don’t think many people found that complementary.
SK: I did not do that. And you should go back and look at the video. In fact, show the whole video on Univision and you’ll know that.
JR: You know it is not complimentary to compare a group of immigrants to animals.
SK: You know I didn’t do that if you watch the whole video. And I would challenge you to run the whole video on Univision. Run the whole video. Listen to the whole speech. Get a sense of what I was talking about rather than what the left-wing blogs are doing. They are trying to divide us instead of let us be unified as one people in this country.
Steve King is sorry that some people chose to be offended and if they’re offended it’s only because they don’t understand “the language and the culture” and because Jorge Ramos is “intentionally and dishonestly” trying to mislead them.
Why not just hold up a big sign or write it on your forehead?
On one hand King’s past and recent comments are unbecoming of a congressman, but on the other hand is he performing the service of telling the Univision audience that they should vote for the other guys. For that we can be thankful.
“You want a good bird dog? You want one that’s going to be aggressive? Pick the one that’s the friskiest…not the one that’s over there sleeping in the corner…You get the pick of the litter and you got yourself a pretty good bird dog. Well, we’ve got the pick of every donor civilization on the planet.” -Steve King