Congressman Steve King is urging his fellow Republicans who are “apprehensive” about President Trump’s trade talk to give Trump “time and room” to make some deals.
“I’ve been asking for years for a president who would play brinksmanship who was also an enigma,” King said Saturday. “It’s really a powerful position to have when you’re doing foreign trade and negotiations and geopolitical maneuvers of all kinds. Well, we elected Donald Trump and I think we got both of those things.”
King made his comments this weekend at the Iowa Republican Party’s state convention.
AUDIO of King’s speech, 6:44
King predicted there will be a “red tsunami” this November. King also spoke up for the nation’s embattled attorney general who’s drawn Trump’s ire at time and who has defended the policy separating children from parents entering the country illegally at the border.
“I’m a supporter of Jeff Sessons. He’s a noble man,” King said. “He believes in the Bible and the Constitution and in the rule of law.”
King’s Democratic opponent, J.C. Scholten of Sioux City, rallied with delegates at the Iowa Democratic Party’s state convention this weekend.
“Who’s ready to beat Steve King?” Scholten asked, getting a big cheer from the Democratic delegates. “Now my second question: ‘Who thinks this race is unwinnable?’ Because that’s what I’ve been told every day since I launched my campaign back in July and I’m sick of it. I’ve modeled my campaign after two of my political heroes: Tom Harkin and Berkely Bedell.”
Harkin and Bedell — both Democrats — are former congressmen who represented many of counties included in Iowa’s current fourth congressional district. Scholten suggested there’s a reason King recently re-tweeted the views of a neo-Nazi.
“He doesn’t have an answer to farmers who have been struggling for four consecutive years on low commodity prices at a time, now, with tariffs to add on top of that,” Scholten said. “…But this is race is not about the crap that comes out of his mouth. It’s about what we can do.”
AUDIO of Scholten’s speech, 3:35