Republican congressman Steve King, the guy who unsuccessfully tried to keep Harriet Tubman off the $20 bill, said something on tonight's All in With Chris Hayes that left the rest of the panel visibly shocked and angry, and left the MSNBC host ready to end the segment.
King, a representative from Iowa's 4th district, was on the show as it broadcasted live from the Republican National Convention at Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena. Esquire writer Charles Pierce was also on the panel, talking about the convention, and the Republican party in general, being run by "old white people." Pierce also noted that if you're optimistic, you might believe that said white people's grip on the GOP might be coming to an end with this election cycle.
Here's how King responded:
"Than white people?" Hayes asked, clarifying.
That's where King kind of took a step back from his original comment, but not really. He didn't say "white people" again, but instead referred to "Western civilization."
Hayes took a second to respond, before ending the segment.
"For the record, if you're looking at the ledger of Western civilization, for every flourishing democracy, you've got Hitler and Stalin as well. So there's a lot on both sides," Hayes said. "On cable news we're not going to resolve the relative strengths of various strands of civilizational prowess."
Earlier this year, it was King who filed an amendment to try to keep Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill, saying it was "racist" and "sexist" to say that a black woman needed to be added to the American currency.
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