A veteran Republican congressman is voicing support for a right-wing Dutch politician who opposes immigration and has spoken against Islam.
Rep. Steve King of Iowa, in a tweet Sunday, paid tribute to Geert Wilders, a veteran member of the Dutch Parliament who founded the Party of Freedom. It came as the Dutch prepare for an election Wednesday.
In the post on his verified Twitter account, King, who has served in the U.S. House since his election in 2002, said: Wilders “understands that culture and demographics are our destiny. We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.”
King is among conservatives who have strongly advocated an end to the U.S. practice of granting automatic citizenship to children born here to parents who are in the country illegally.
Critics accused King of using white nationalist terms and ignoring the fact that the United States is a nation of immigrants. Evan McMullin, who ran as an independent candidate in the 2016 presidential election, tweeted that King was promoting un-American ideas of white nationalism and wondered if any Republicans would publicly chastise the congressman.
At least one Republican did. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, the son of Cuban immigrants, asked if he qualified as “someone else’s baby.”
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