Republican Congressman Steve King Retweets Neo-Nazi

Iowan Republican Congressman Steve King faces backlash after retweeting a known Nazi sympathizer.

King retweeted alt-right British activist Mark Collett‘s anti-immigration post this past Tuesday. As former chairman of the Young BNP, Collett is well-known for his Neo-Nazi views as well as his anti-immigration and homophobic rhetoric. The young activist was previously featured in the 2002 Channel 4 documentary, Young, Nazi, and Proud in which he espoused his admiration for Adolf Hitler and the ideals of the Nazi Party.

“The Jews have been thrown out of every country, including England,” he says in the documentary. “Let’s face it, when it happens that many times it’s not just persecution: there’s no smoke without fire.”

Collett also claimed that AIDS is a “friendly disease because blacks, drug users and gays have it.” He was later found making similar remarks on Russell Brand‘s 2002 TV show RE:Brand, in which he described homosexuals as “AIDS Monkeys,” “bum bandits” and “faggots.”

Collett recently tweeted a screenshot of a Breitbart article titled “Vast Majority of Under-35 Italians Now Oppose Mass Migration,” and commented, “65% of Italians under the age of 35 now oppose mass immigration. Europe is waking up…”.

King then retweeted the post, adding “Europe is waking up…Will America…in time?”.

As a prominent opponent of immigration, this is not the first time King been under fire for his controversial statements. In a 2013 interview with the conservative site Newsmax, the congressman stated that for every child of undocumented immigrants “who’s a valedictorian, there’s another 100 out there who weigh 130 pounds and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.”

On immigration, King previously declared that diversity is not an American strength. 

More recently, King drew nation-wide attention after posting a meme mocking anti-gun activist and Parkland school-shooting survivor, Emma Gonzales.

Rather than removing the Collett retweet in response to criticism, King has since doubled-down on his stance by reposting the same tweet earlier today.