Iowa Rep. Steve King — who once said that the U.S. can’t “restore” itself with “somebody else’s babies” — claims he was justified in mocking a teenage survivor of last month’s Florida school shooting because she is supposedly promoting Cuban communism.
King drew widespread rebuke Monday when his campaign’s Facebook page posted an inflammatory meme criticizing Emma Gonzalez, a Cuban-American senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people on Feb. 14, according to investigators.
The meme, which features a photo of Gonzalez wearing a green jacket emblazoned with a Cuban flag patch, states, “This is how you look when you claim Cuban heritage yet don’t speak Spanish and ignore the fact that your ancestors fled the island when the dictatorship turned Cuba into a prison camp after removing all weapons from its citizens.”
On Tuesday, a spokesman for King defended the meme, adding that it was posted by the Republican congressman’s campaign manager.
“The meme in question merely points out the irony of someone pushing gun control while wearing the flag of a country that was oppressed by a communist, anti-gun regime,” the spokesman told the New York Daily News. “Pretty simple, really.”
But it’s really not that simple.
First off, the Cuban flag was adopted in 1902 — decades before Fidel Castro’s communist revolution. Furthermore, the tricolored banner has been touted by anti-Castro Cuban migrants, and can hardly be described as a universal symbol of communism or “anti-gun” sentiments.
David Hogg, one of Gonzalez’s classmates and fellow school shooting survivor, called on Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to condemn King in light of the incendiary meme.
“Hey marcorubio,” Hogg tweeted. “(Gonzalez)’s family fled Cuba to escape totalitarianism and live in freedom just like your family could you please respond to SteveKingIA?”
Rubio’s office did not immediately return a request for comment on whether the senator planned to take Hogg up on his request.
King, meanwhile, continued criticizing the young men and women who marched through Washington, D.C., on Saturday to protest gun violence.
“If you are a teenager & believe you won’t be responsible enough to own a gun until 21, why should you vote before 21?” King tweeted from his official congressional account.
Hogg was quick to fire back at King on that one as well.
“Maybe because so many of us are gunned down before we even become 21,” Hogg tweeted. “You prove exactly why so many Americans are done with politicians like you who only have the goal of dividing America to make us weaker.”
King has attracted a fair share of controversy in the past.
He was accused of pushing white supremacist talking points after tweeting that Dutch far-right politician Geer Wilders “understands that culture and demographics are our destiny.”
“We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies,” King capped off the tweet.
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