Congressman Steve King received a rousing reception from the crowd, with about half giving him a standing ovation. He took people back to Jan. 24, 2015. King organized a freedom summit in Des Moines. Every potential presidential candidate was invited. Many attended.
“We filled that place up with 1,250 rock-rib, constitutional, full-spectrum Christian conservatives,” he said. “What happened was the 1,250 people that filled that place up, you were the filter. And the presidential candidates knew that they had to pitch a conservative message, a consistent, full-spectrum, fiscal and social conservative message and if they couldn’t do that then you were going to maybe boo, hiss or walkaway or look at your watch. But you cheered, you rose, you stood on your feet, you stomped your feet and you began the platform that now exists in the Oval Office of the United States.”
King said some of the establishment candidates did not show up for the event in 2015. One spent $130 million and got one delegate.
“Some of those folks aren’t very happy,” he said. “They don’t want you, the grassroots of Iowa or America, to be able to decide who the nominee is and then ultimately who the President is. They don’t want you to shape the platform.”
King said the establishment decided it did not want King organizing events like this because it hurts the establishment’s candidates. He said he is fighting to drain the swamp in D.C. as well.
“It’s the hierarchy,” he said. “It’s not the grassroots. You are the grassroots. I know what my numbers look like in this state and I know how people respond. And it’s terrific because you know what you believe in and you know what I believe in. You know that I stood before you for years and I took a position on every possible issue and where ever I took a stand it was consistent with full spectrum, Christian constitutional conservatism and I have never let you down. And I will not.”
King then talked about leading on the heartbeat bill. He blamed Republican House leadership for failing to get a vote on the bill in the U.S. House. Once he realized it wasn’t going to get anywhere at the national level, he called State Sen. Jason Schultz (R-Denison).
The two worked together to get the heartbeat bill through the Iowa Senate and Iowa House.
“Iowa became the most pro-life state in the Union,” King said. “I want to thank you and congratulate you for what we have all done together. We set up the filter that let the conservatives come through and kept the establishment people out and now our values are in the Oval Office in the body of Donald Trump — you shaped that.”
King finished by quoting Andrew Breitbart who he said was a close, personal friend.
“He would say this, ‘Walk towards the fire. Their bullets aren’t real,'” King said. “Well, I not only walk toward the fire, I walk into the fire, I’m walking into the fire now, I’m going to walk through the fire and we’re going to prove their bullets aren’t real.”
King seemingly gained fans with his talk as more people stood and applauded at the end of his speech than they did at the beginning.
