A former Republican colleague of Rep. Steve King (R-IA) wondered aloud on Tuesday night whether King has lost his mind following the conservative lawmaker’s latest outrageous remarks in which he said humanity wouldn’t exist without rape and incest.
“What if we went back through all the family trees and just pulled out anyone who was a product of rape or incest? Would there be any population of the world left if we did that?” King said at an Iowa event on Tuesday. “Considering all the wars and all the rapes and pillages that happened throughout all these different nations, I know that I can’t say that I was not a part of a product of that.”
Appearing on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, one-time Pennsylvania Rep. Charlie Dent was asked by anchor Anderson Cooper if King was as offensive in private as “he is seemingly willingly in public.”
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Dent, a Never Trump Republican who is now a CNN political commentator, noted that “on a personal level” King was friendly but that these latest remarks were “just so outlandish.”
“They’re out of bounds, out of control,” he added. “I mean, you wonder if he’s out of his mind.”
Dent went on to say King’s remarks reminded him of “similarly ridiculous comments” made in the past by Republicans such as Todd Akin and Roy Moore on the subject of rape and abortion, adding that the GOP needs to “get away from this stuff because it’s killing us among women.”
Dent is not the only Republican to speak out against King over his latest controversy. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who previously called on King to resign over his defense of white supremacy, labeled the far-right lawmaker’s comments “appalling and bizarre” while saying it was “time for him to go.”
