Rep. Steve King (R-IA) Thursday smeared the victims of Hurricane Katrina as helpless and reliant on handouts as compared to the hardiness and self-dependence of his own constituency.
“Here’s what FEMA tells me: ‘We go to a place like New Orleans and everybody’s looking around saying, who’s gonna help me, who’s gonna help me?’” King said at a town hall in Charter Oak, Iowa. “They’re just always gratified when they come and see Iowans take care of each other, so that’s a point of pride that spreads across the country.”
The death toll from the storm is very uncertain, but most cite figures between the high 900s and 1,836 — either way, it is undoubtedly one of the deadliest hurricanes in modern American history. It is widely remembered as a FEMA disaster, from an egregiously late response to emergency shelter trailers infested with asbestos.
King has been on a roll this week, refusing to say if white societies are superior or inferior to nonwhite societies just a few days ago.
Watch his speech here (the Katrina comments come about six minutes in):
