Rep. Steve King (R-IA) defended his claim that undocumented youths are drug mules with cantaloupe-sized calves on Friday, telling The Laura Ingraham Show that he would not apologize for the remarks. King’s claims have sparked outrage across the political spectrum, leading House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to distance himself from the Iowa Congressman.
But King refused to back down and argued that his comments were based on the personal experience of dealing with people crossing the Mexican-American border.
“That description comes from many days down on the border, riding and sitting with the border patrol and without them at night, no night vision, watching the shadows come across the border, picking people up personally with my hands, unloading illegal drugs out of a vehicle with a false bottom under the truck,” he told Ingraham. “I mean this is a personal experience and I sit there at night and border patrol agents would come to me one at a time in their civil clothes and talk to me clandestinely…This description is the description from that kind of experience.”
Listen:
King claimed he didn’t understand why people were offended by his remarks, since they were only targeted at illegal drug smugglers.