House Speaker Paul Ryan on Monday issued a mild rebuke of Rep. Steve King’s controversial, xenophobic comments on immigrants and non-white cultures. “We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies,” the Iowa Republican tweeted Sunday in support of a Dutch far-right candidate’s anti-Muslim remark about threats against western civilization. King doubled down on his support for such beliefs during a CNN interview, telling host Chris Cuomo that he was simply “promoting the birth rate in America, restoring the rule of law, putting an end to illegal immigration, and recognizing we need to be a country that’s pulled together on similar values.” Asked whether Muslim-Americans are equal to German-Americans, however, King hesitated before suggesting they are all “equal in the eyes of God,” but do not contribute to society equally. In response to outcry over King’s continued defense of such remarks that sound awfully close to those of white supremacists, Ryan’s spokesperson issued a statement: “The speaker clearly disagrees and believes America’s long history of inclusiveness is one of its great strengths.”
