Rep. Steve King really can relate to Joseph Stack's attack of the IRS building in Austin because he too was audited. A Media Matters staffer told TPM that King made these outrageous statements about the suicide plane attack at CPAC, Saturday night:
Rep. Steve King (R-IA) told a crowd at CPAC on Saturday that he could "empathize" with the suicide bomber who last week attacked an IRS office in Austin, and encouraged his listeners to "implode" other IRS offices, according to a witness.
King's comments weren't recorded, but a staffer for Media Matters, who heard the comments, provided TPMmuckraker with an account.
The staffer, who requested anonymity because she's not a communications specialist, said that King, an extreme right-winger with a reputation for eyebrow-raising rhetoric, appeared as a surprise guest speaker on an immigration panel at the conservative conference. During his closing remarks, King veered into a complaint about high taxes, and said he could "empathize" with the man who flew a plane into an IRS building last week
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This is a man that is supposed to serve and protect America. He's a Congressman for God's sake.
Think Progress caught up with him later on and this is what he said.
TP: Do you think this attack, this terrorist attack, was motivated at all by a lot of the anti-tax rhetoric that’s popular in America right now?
KING: I think if we’d abolished the IRS back when I first advocated it, he wouldn’t have a target for his airplane. And I’m still for abolishing the IRS, I’ve been for it for thirty years and I’m for a national sales tax. [...] It’s sad the incident in Texas happened, but by the same token, it’s an agency that is unnecessary and when the day comes when that is over and we abolish the IRS, it’s going to be a happy day for America.
TP: So some of his grievances were legitimate?
KING: I don’t know if his grievances were legitimate, I’ve read part of the material. I can tell you I’ve been audited by the IRS and I’ve had the sense of ‘why is the IRS in my kitchen.’ Why do they have their thumb in the middle of my back. … It is intrusive and we can do a better job without them entirely.
These are the people that will be holding hearings on Capitol Hill if the House goes back toe the republicans. You can bet on it. The treatment ACORN received when they weren't in power is a prelude on things to come. People who don't mind nut-jobs from killing Americans like suicide bombers.
Michele "miss me yet?" Bachmann would actually be in a position of power too...
