King says he’ll debate Mowrer

DES MOINES - Days after opting out of one debate, Steve King said Tuesday he will honor his commitment to debate Jim Mowrer in two days on Iowa Public Television.

King, a five-term Republican U.S. House member from Kiron, faces a re-election challenge from Mowrer, a Democrat and former National Guard member from Boone.

King recently refused to participate in a debate in Sioux City - which would have been co-hosted by the Sioux City Journal - over his disapproval of a campaign ad being run by Mowrer.

King told reporters Tuesday in Des Moines that he plans to participate in Thursday's debate. He said he recently spoke with Dean Borg, moderator of IPTV's 'Iowa Press,” and that nothing had changed since September when he pledged to participate in the debate, which will be held at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake.

'My plan is to be there and do the debate on Thursday night,” King said.

King had earlier said he would not take part in that debate if Mowrer's ad continued to run.

'Just like in Congress, Steve King is all bark and no bite,” Sam Spencer, Mowrer's communications director, said in response to King's Tuesday announcement. 'It's no surprise that his threats to pull out of the debate are as empty as his rhetoric.”

King addressed roughly a dozen central Iowa business leaders Tuesday at the Greater Des Moines Partnership's candidate series at the Des Moines Botanical Gardens.

Mowrer spoke to the Partnership in September.

During his remarks, King spoke about the national debt and fighting for a balanced federal budget, expressed his admiration for economic expansion in Des Moines and the health of Iowa agriculture, criticized President Barack Obama's foreign policy, and underlined the role first-in-the-nation Iowa will play in choosing candidates for an open-seat race to the White House in 2016.

'Whatever party we might be, we are going to make a recommendation to the rest of the country on who should be the next president of the United States. And it is a wonderful privilege, duty and responsibility to get that right,” King said.

King said Iowans can help shape presidential candidates by pushing for policies Iowans strongly believe in.

'Getting Iowa values in the Oval Office is my mission,” King said.

King said he believes Obama's foreign policy 'is a mess” and that the United States should arm Kurdish soldiers to help in the fight against the Islam State in Iraq and Syria. King said he will travel to Kurdistan some time before Thanksgiving to meet with leaders there.

'I'm hopeful that we'll be able to bring some heavy weapons in there,” King said. 'They're the people that will shut ISIS down. They're our best hope to keep American boots from the ground. But they do need special forces there.”

King also said, however, that he considers Iran and 'Russian encroachment” to be even greater areas of foreign concern than ISIS.