Thread by @Grace_Segers

Steve King is holding a town hall, and is spending the top half of it insisting he is not racist. He accuses people who say he is racist of being Orwellian.

"There's know way we can be a constitutional republic if we don't have freedom of speech, thought, and assembly."

King reiterates that his only mistake was giving an interview to The New York Times. Says he was specifically talking about "Western civilization" when he asked "white supremacy, white nationalist" became bad terms.

King blames Kevin McCarthy for taking him off committees. However, he says this is the best time possible for it to happen, as Republicans are not in the majority.

King says that since he is no longer on any committees, he will spend "all of my attention" on working with President Trump.

Steve King on Trump agreeing to reopen the government: "He didn't stick with this one the way I thought he had said he would."

Attendee at town hall tells Steve King: "We support you, we love your conservatism, and we hope they never silence you. We need you."

Steve King is now saying that 75% of girls and women migrants get sexually assaulted on their way to the American border. And he says 100% of them receive birth control before they go.

First combative questioner: woman asks about economic anxiety in town of Spencer. He asks if she has any ideas to fix it, she says no, and gets increasingly upset. He promises to visit and talk about it.

Steve King is very long-winded.

Another questioner says district supports King, to applause. Says she watches Fox "every day of the week" and reads the constitution, fears a progressive movement overtaking the country. She also decries the "reverse racism" against white people after Steve King's interview.

Same speaker encourages people to "get on Facebook" to read the news.

King is now talking about a pro-life bill in the Iowa state legislature he supported and how he helped plan it so it could be decided by a "pro-Constitution" Supreme Court.

King is now claiming that all media reports of racism are lies. He says the Weekly Standard lied about him, and that's why it shut down. "I knew about it a week before they did," King says about the Weekly Standard closing.

He is now quoting the Rudyard Kipling poem "If," about maintaining moral courage in the face of adversity. Kipling was, fun fact, an imperialist.