Rep. Steve King, whose history of making racist remarks has recently come under scrutiny, shared a Facebook post over the weekend that boasts red states would “win” a fight against blue states — and that they have “8 trillion bullets.”
“Wonder who would win…” the Iowa Republican wrote in a post Saturday, adding an emoji with a smirk. Attached to the post is a photo depicting Democratic-leaning states engaged in a fight with Republican-leaning states. The photo’s caption reads, “Folks keep talking about another civil war… One side has about 8 trillion bullets, while the other side doesn’t know which bathroom to use,” an apparent reference to Democrats’ support of gender-neutral bathrooms.
Among the collection of states colored blue is King’s home state of Iowa, which he has represented in Congress since 2003.
King’s office did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment. Later Monday, the post was removed from King’s Facebook page.
The post came several days after President Donald Trump seemed to insinuate that his supporters – the police, military and “Bikers for Trump,” he claims – could turn violent against Democrats.
“You know, the left plays a tougher game, it’s very funny. I actually think that the people on the right are tougher, but they don’t play it tougher. OK?” Trump said in an interview published last week in Breitbart News. “I can tell you I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump – I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough – until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad.”
Several Democrats denounced the President’s comments, including Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who said he sees them “as a danger to peaceful transition of power in our democracy.”
Earlier this year, House Republicans stripped King of his committee assignments following remarks he made to the New York Times that were sympathetic to white supremacy, though King said his comments were taken out of context. The move was celebrated by Democrats, who had long complained about the congressman’s history of incendiary comments related to race and immigration.
CNN’s Veronica Stracqualursi contributed to this report.
