On June 12, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) tweeted : Europe is waking up... Will America... in time? and linked to an anti-immigrant tweet by a well-known British neo-Nazi named Mark Collett .

A month later, the tweet is still there.

King told CNN that he had no plans to delete the tweet. Just because Collett might be a neo-Nazi, King argued, doesnt mean his tweet about immigration is wrong. I mean, its the message, not the messenger, King said.

Its not surprising that the eight-term congressman from Iowa retweeted a neo-Nazi. King has a long history of making terrible, bigoted comments. (Hes the one who said Dreamers young undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children have calves the size of cantaloupes because theyre hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.)

What is surprising, and concerning, is that a sitting U.S. congressman can unapologetically promote a neo-Nazis propaganda on Twitter without real political consequence. Over the past month, none of Kings fellow Republicans have pushed to censure him or expel him from Congress. None have called for him to resign. Mostly, they have stayed quiet .

Republicans have rebuked King in the past, sometimes forcefully. But theyve also never really punished him, and have been inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. (Id like to think he misspoke, House Speaker Paul Ryan once said after King tweeted : we cant restore our civilization with other peoples babies. King later clarified that he had not misspoken, and had meant exactly what he said.)

King is still chair of the House subcommittee on the constitution and civil justice. He still sits in the subcommittee on immigration and border security. Hes still co-chair of Republican Kim Reynolds gubernatorial campaign in Iowa. Over the past month, hes received thousands of dollars in campaign donations, including from Koch Industries PAC. And come time for the 2020 presidential election, Republican candidates will likely come begging for his endorsement, just as they did in the last election.

Although the National Republican Congressional Committee, the Republican National Committee and Republican politicians have taken time to denounce or un-endorse the frightening number of neo-Nazis, Holocaust deniers and other assorted white supremacists running for office as Republicans this year, theyve remained silent about King, helping to normalize his ideas and deem them acceptable.

When a HuffPost reporter on Capitol Hill Tuesday asked King about his retweet of a neo-Nazi, the congressman said all of his tweets are true and objective. On Wednesday, when the same reporter asked King if he is a white supremacist or a white nationalist, the congressman didnt deny the allegation.

I dont answer those questions, he said. I say to people that use those kind of allegations: Use those words a million times, because youre reducing the value of them every time, and many of the people that use those words and make those allegations and ask those questions cant even define the words theyre using.

So we have defined the words, and all the evidence is there: King is a white supremacist.

All The Kings (White) Men