Congressman Steve King releases the following video clips of floor statements he delivered in the House of Representatives Friday. In his special order remarks, King addressed three topics: 1) King honored the life of his friend, Phil Haney, an Obama-era DHS whistleblower who was recently found dead under suspicious circumstances; 2) King praised the work of Nigel Farage, the historic British politician most closely associated with the successful Brexit effort in which the United Kingdom left the European Union; and 3) King blasted House GOP leadership for their unprincipled reaction to an “orchestrated media firestorm” that was used as a justification to strip King from his committee assignments.
The relevant video clips of King’s remarks are presented below, along with excerpts of his comments.
Honoring the Life of Phil Haney:
“Phil Haney was a patriot. When I first met Phil Haney, it was in a quiet, careful room over here just off the Capitol a little ways. And, I knew a little about his story. But when I first heard his story, he was concerned then that he would be a target by people and he had a thumb drive with a lot of data on it, I don’t know how many gigs it was, hanging on a lanyard around his neck. He kept that with him, and I understood that that information was also deposited in a remote location, or two, or more, so there was a redundancy if anything happened to Phil Haney, that data would be accessible to the people whom he trusted, I imagine, the most. So that was his insurance policy that he wouldn’t be killed.”
. . .
“When there were people who would come talk to him, just one-on-one he often said to them ‘you’re taking a risk talking to me because you could become a target too.’ And he had said to friends as recently as two weeks before his death ‘if there’s an announcement…if I’m dead and there is a suicide letter it will be a fake.’ He often said, ‘I would never commit suicide.’”
. . .
“I can’t be convinced Phil Haney committed suicide. I knew him too well. I’ve talked to at least a dozen of his close friends since that period of time that also said the same thing. The instance the news hit them, they knew that Phil had already prepared us to know that he would never commit suicide. He was a very deep and devoted Christian man.”
Honoring the Brexit work of Nigel Farage:
“[Farage] formed a party called UKIP, and the UKIP party was the most conservative party in the United Kingdom and their objective was to pull the United Kingdom out of the European Union.”
. . .
“Some of the frustrations I’ve had in trying to negotiate and trade with the European Union come up against the barriers that they’ve had. Most of those barriers do have to do with agriculture, Madame Speaker. For example, we’ve come a long ways with our technology and the genetically modified organisms that we have. We have for years and years raised Roundup-ready soybeans. . .Well the folks in the European Union think that somehow that could be a carcinogen and I have argued with them over there over and over again ‘show me your evidence!’ on how it could be a carcinogen.”
. . .
“Now we’re at a place where we can get serious about trade negotiations with the United Kingdom, and I’m one who favors a strong trade agreement with them that perhaps has benefits that are leaning towards the United Kingdom so that they can get a good jumpstart in the severing that has taken place in their relationship with Brussels, something that would phase down, perhaps over five years. Whenever there’s a trade agreement, like any business transaction, it has to be beneficial to both parties. . .I’m happy if we can help the United Kingdom have a smooth glide-path out of the EU and ascend with a successful economy. And I just cannot congratulate Nigel Farage enough for the personal accomplishment that he has led.”
Farage is the former leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) and is the British politician most closely associated with the successful Brexit Vote which led to the United Kingdom leaving the European Union (EU). Farage was King’s guest Thursday at the weekly Conservative Opportunity Society breakfast event that King hosts.
Blasting House GOP Leadership for Unprincipled Reaction to Orchestrated Media Firestorm:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUFQQ7fMTxc&feature=youtu.be
“[Saint Paul] stood before Festus, the Governor, and said ‘if I’ve offended thee, for any reason for which I should be put to death, tell me what that is. Show me your rule, show me your law. And if you have no law, you have no way to punish me for some law that doesn’t exist.’ Those principles are in our law today. They’re not, Madame Speaker, necessarily in the rules of the Republican Conference. I can tell you that, as none of those things were allowed for me.”
. . .
“I didn’t have and wasn’t presented any right to face my accusers. In fact, I don’t have an accuser. Not one out of 330 million people. And there’s no rule that I have been cited as violating, or even thinking about circumventing, let alone, violate a law.”
. . .
“It was an orchestrated media firestorm that got the political lynch-mobs blood up, and they decided the best way to do that was to do what they did. And it’s got to be rectified, Madame Speaker. We cannot have a standard in this country, a standard in this country that says that one person in leadership, or even if that one person can demagogue the rest of them, can diminish or deny the representation of a duly elected Member of Congress. But that is what’s happened, and it must be rectified, and it must be rectified soon.”
