The 'If I Were A Nazi, Why Do I Have Black Friends, Huh?' Act of 2019. https://t.co/nuOTnBaepC
— Zeddediah Springfield (@Zeddary) June 12, 2019
Rep. Steve King introduced "The Diamond and Silk Act" today and the press conference was a wreck.
The trio was asked about King's white supremacist sympathies before a One America News camera crew interviewed them until a car arrived to whisk them away.https://t.co/5gRuTNyUcW
— Jared Holt (@jaredlholt) June 12, 2019
Rep. Steve ‘Pigmuck’ King’s saying-the-quiet-parts-out-loud antics have grown sufficiently egregious that even the Racist-in-Chief’s staff decided he couldn’t mooch a ride home on Air Force One (not even in the back, as some twitter wag noted). So King felt called on to break out the big guns…
Steve King and Diamond & Silk arrive outside the House for a press conference. pic.twitter.com/AI0lmFiThG
— Jared Holt (@jaredlholt) June 12, 2019
Per NYMag, “Steve King, Diamond, and Silk Deflect Racism Charges by Unveiling Racist Legislation”:
Iowa Republican and white supremacist U.S. representative Steve King unveiled the “Diamond and Silk Act” on Wednesday. Officially dubbed the End Sanctuaries and Help Our American Homeless and Veterans Act, the legislation seeks to redirect federal funding from so-called sanctuary cities — jurisdictions that decline to help federal authorities arrest and deport undocumented immigrants — to programs that aid homeless people and veterans.
The act’s unofficial title is inspired by its unofficial co-sponsors: Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson, better known by their stage names, Diamond and Silk. Together, the pair hosts a conservative video series on YouTube aimed at ridiculing Democrats and boosting Republicans, especially President Donald Trump, for whom they left the Democratic Party to support in 2015.
Diamond and Silk’s appeal to Republicans — the vast majority of whom are white — is that they are black women willing to exonerate the GOP of its racism. They conducted themselves accordingly on Wednesday when they joined King on Capitol Hill to announce their partnership. Reporters asked what they thought of the congressman’s retweeting white supremacists. “I’m tired of you all playing the race card,” Hardaway retorted. “It’s time to start working for Americans. And stop calling everybody a racist.”…
It remains unclear how much longer Republicans will persist in the charade that allegations of racism can be waved away by the contrarianism of any random black person. But King seems willing to see how far it will carry him. The dishonesty underlying this approach is something of a turnaround from the openness with which he broadcast his white supremacism in the Times profile earlier this year. But if nothing else, it suggests that he learned his lesson from the Republican fallout: You can be a white supremacist as long as you lie and claim you are not one.
Congratulations to inevitable winners Diamond and Silk. https://t.co/QJg70XmQtS
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) June 13, 2019