King Digs In Deeper: ‘Of Course I Stand By My Remarks’

Rep. Steve King (R-IA), who recently declared that al Qaeda would be “dancing in the streets” if Barack Obama were elected President “because of his middle name,” again stood by his comments in an interview with Fox News this morning.

“Of course I stand by my remarks. They’re something I’ve thought about for quite some time,” King said. He took issue with Obama calling the Iraq war “a botched and ill-advised military incursion into a Muslim country.”

King made clear that, while he disagrees with Obama’s stance on redeploying from Iraq, his chief concern is that Obama could potentially be perceived as a Muslim by people in the Middle East because of his middle name:

By the way, I was careful not to say his middle name. But it means something different in the Middle East than it means here. We’ve risen above this in the United States. About 25 percent of Americans will change their religion during their lifetime. To them [Middle Easterners], religion is more hereditary. So it’s harder for Obama to convince them that he’s Christian. He’s convinced me. But I don’t think he’ll convince a lot of the Middle East because it is hereditary.

“We’ve got to understand the Middle East culture,” King said, as he continued to disparage Obama’s middle name. The Fox host took King’s side, saying, “I get a sense from you that you’re really trying to talk about policy.” Watch it:

On CNN’s Late Edition, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) distanced himself from King’s claim that al Qaeda will be dancing in the streets. “I don’t think that will actually occur,” Kyl said.

Also on CNN, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. called King’s comments “reckless, irresponsible, and certainly divisive.” It’s “fearmongering at its worst and is just horrible,” Jackson said in calling on King to apologize.

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) added, “This is the kind of thing that divides all Americans. That’s what he’s intending to do. There’s no place for it and there’s no substance to it.