After the attack, supporters of Rep. Steve King dismiss the concern over his white nationalist views

REMSEN, Iowa – As the polka group was playing and the volunteers began to serve the bratwurst, the rumor slowly reverberated over the annual beer festival in this isolated agricultural town of Iowa: eleven Jews had been massacred in Pittsburgh, slaughtered at their synagogue.

"Hate," says Iowans for the celebration. "Sad." "Terrible." "Makes me sick."

No one has asked if their beloved representative, Steve King – the most openly affiliated US congressman of white nationalism – could contribute to anti-Semitism or racism through his shameless embrace of rhetoric White nationalist and his praises of the far-right politicians of other nations.

"There are still groups that praise Hitler and believe that everything he has taught … Much of this is going to be misinterpreted," said Joe Schuttpelz. If King's goal is to defend the status of native-born Americans in the arrival of immigrants, Schuttpelz agrees. "It does not protect us so much against taking control, but gives us some of the benefits that everyone has when they come here," he said.

The belief that he expressed Saturday in Remsen, as a result of the deadliest attack in his history against American Jews, is prevalent in the 4th district of Iowa, where King is looking to get a ninth term in Congress.

During his 16 years in the House, King became better known for his inflammatory rhetoric about immigration and race than for passing a bill. He decried some Latinos as having "calves the size of a cantaloupe because they carry 75 kilos of marijuana in the desert." He defended the Confederate flag and posted one on his desk.

He embraced the far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders and recently promoted Faith Goldy, a marginal candidate of the mayor of Toronto who was fired by a far right publication for appearing on a podcast produced by the Daily Stormer neo-Nazi website.

In an August interview with members of an Austrian far-right party with historical Nazi ties, King lamented that "Western civilization is in decline" because of immigrants and criticized the Jewish financier George Soros.

"What does this diversity bring that we have not already?" he asked then.

In an interview after the Saturday shootout in Pittsburgh, King said he was not anti-Semitic, thus touting his support for Israel and insisting that "there is a special place in hell." "for anyone who commits religious or race-based violence.

"What do you call Steve King as anti-Semite?" he asked, just before pronouncing a speech supporting the rights of firearms at a dinner celebrating the first day of the pheasant hunting season in the city of Akron, in the ### 39, West Iowa.

He said that the groups he is associated with that are criticized for having neo-Nazi views are more precisely "far right" groups. He notably cited the Austrian Freedom Party, founded by a former Nazi SS officer and led by Heinz-Christian Strache, active in neo-Nazi circles in his youth. The group has focused on an uncompromising anti-immigration stance even as it seeks to stand out from Nazi relations.

"If they were in America pushing the platform they're pushing, they'd be Republicans," King said.

J.D. Scholten, King's Democratic opponent, has greatly dominated and led a much more aggressive campaign in person across the district. The Sioux City newspaper on Friday approved Scholten, thus reversing his support for King in recent years.

"Whenever King immerses himself in the controversy, he brandishes this district ridiculously and marginalizes himself within the legislature that he serves, which does not bring any benefit to the Iowans who live and work here," said the lawyer, citing King for being attached to "intolerant ugliness."

Last week, at the 37th stage of his third run in 39 counties, Scholten largely avoided hitting King and spoke even more rarely about Trump. Like many Midwestern Democrats, he focused on health care and agriculture.

On Saturday, Scholten's assistant said the Pittsburgh shootout sparked a new wave of donations for his campaign.

In an interview, Scholten said that King had failed during his career to denounce hate groups.

"It goes against everything we are taught in the church," he said. "Whatever you believe, this district has strong faith, and none of these religions preach that."

But King remains popular; many voters do not consider his posts as eliminatory.

Bob Scott, the mayor of Sioux City – the largest city in the vast district – said the Iowans did not share King's point of view, although they voted for him.

"They may have immigration problems, they may have interracial problems for whatever reason," he said. "But the majority will not agree with what happens when he meets these people in Austria.I just do not see this type of racism here, and that's what it is . "

In the 4th District – a very conservative band of Iowa, nearly 200 km wide, rich in fertile farmland dotted with cities the length of a main street two blocks away – King enjoys wide support.

"Steve is Steve, he's a guy from the area, he graduated from high school here, he comes for lunch on Sunday," said Eric Skoog, Crawford County Supervisor, who, along with his wife, owns what they believe to be the oldest active restaurant in Iowa. .

At the Cronk counter, opened since 1929, Skoog said that he did not agree with King on immigration and that he was not afraid of share his contradictory points of view. Skoog has worked hard to help local schools adapt to the influx of immigrant children in Denison, a district in the very white district where a major meat-packing plant has attracted a large Hispanic community.

Still, Skoog said, "I do not see him as racist, I do not know, he's just Steve." In November, he says, he will probably vote for him.

Some in the district welcome King's frank words.

"We are quite happy in this country of hitting the white." One group of people has not achieved minority status, and they are white men, "said Steve Sorensen, a former truck driver, in a statement. watch the World Series in a Hampton bar. "You can fire a white man whenever you want, he has no recourse, try that with someone else."

Mindy Rainer also believes that others benefit more from government benefits than white women. "There are people who are desperate and I am one of them," she said, going to the Cherokee City restaurant bar where she works.

Rainer's husband was injured on a construction site 25 years ago, she said, and was denied disability benefits due to bureaucratic hurdles. She has supported them both, but now her kidneys are failing and she fears she will not be able to work for eight years until her husband is able to reach social security.

Rainer remembered queuing to try to get help for her utility bills when she was living in South Carolina and started to be wary of other people, almost all of them Afro-American. US.

"What upset me more than anything was that all black babies were dressed in the best outfit," she said. "When their children wear tennis shoes at $ 150, what do you think?"

She ranks on King's side when he talks about immigration. "Why should we feed others when we can not feed ourselves?" she asked.

King's nativist views are much less prevalent among the region's business leaders, who view immigration as essential to meeting the needs of meat processing plants and other businesses.

"We need more people, we have good paying jobs, we just need more people to fill the positions," said Kelly Halsted, director of economic development for the Greater Fort Dodge Growth Alliance, a business organization. . Immigration in Iowa, she says, is "totally positive".

King 's position on the issue is totally false, she said, but she will always vote for him because she thinks he' s helped direct money to projects in the city. Iowa:

"You must take the good with the bad, no?"

While a Halloween parade was marching through Cherokee, past King 's campaign posters in a window near the starting point, others announced that they would return their MLA. long time this year. Martee Heinse, a Republican who said she was satisfied with Trump, heard Scholten's TV commercials and was left impressed by her positive tone.

"Let's make a change because we have the other guy for so long," she says.

Scott Embrock, who was parading with children dressed as a little skeleton, a little witch and a superhero, was more emphatic.

"I think it's time he left," he tells King. "He's dealing with neo-Nazis, he's anti-everyone who's not white, and I do not think it's right."