King Says Immigrant and Dog Comparison Was a Compliment

Congressman Steve King further explained his comments on his comparison between attracting legal immigrants and picking the best of the litter during a WHO TV Insider show broadcast over the weekend.

King said during a recent television WHO Insiders interview that the litter comment made during his American Dream campaign tour in Humboldt was a compliment.

“They knew it was a compliment. They turned it into an insult because they are professional hyper ventilators,” King said.

“We have always gotten the cream of the crop and that's why we are a can do country … Right thinking common sense people do know that,” King said.

Earlier this year in Humboldt King said:

“You want a good bird dog? You want one that’s going to be aggressive? Pick the one that’s the friskiest, the one that's engaged the most and not the one that’s over there sleeping in the corner," King was recorded saying.

King went on to say:

“We got the pick of every donor civilization on the planet because it's hard to get here and they have to be inspired to come,” King said.

King faces Christie Vilsack, a Democrat from Ames, in the race for the 4^th District. Vilsack's campaign and groups including the Iowa Democratic Party's Hispanic Caucus and the Take Down King CREDO group have taken offense to the pick of the litter reference in the past.

"King's claim that he was complimenting Iowa's hard-working immigrants when he compared them to dogs is outrageous and disgusting," said Alec Johnson, District Director for the Take Down King campaign, said in a statement Tuesday. "Voters won't be fooled, and Iowans deserve a long-overdue apology from Steve King."

Vilsack's campaign plans to use the pick of the litter reference and another King made about immigrants and livestock in an ad called “Not Iowa” that she will run across the 4^th District this week. The livestock comment stems from King suggesting that electrified fences be used in border control.

“We could also electrify this wire with the kind of current that would not kill somebody, but it would be a discouragement for them to be fooling around with it. We do that with livestock all the time,” King was quoted as saying in the Hill.

Do you think it was a compliment? Tell us in the comments.