Democrats: King event put spotlight on extremism

DES MOINES - Democratic national chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said extremism was on parade at Saturday's Iowa Freedom Summit put on by U.S. Rep. Steve King and Citizens United to a full house at Hoyt Sherman Place.

With at least eight presidential hopefuls in attendance, Wasserman Schultz told reporters that King's event marked a troubling kickoff of the 2016 GOP presidential primary with candidates coming to the state that opens the nominating process to 'kiss the ring” and 'kowtow” to one of their party's most extreme and offensive conservative voices.

'These wannabe Republican leaders should be standing up to people like Steve King, not standing with him,” said the Florida congresswoman who leads the Democratic Party's national committee. Wasserman Schultz called Saturday's event 'an extremist ring-kissing summit masquerading” as a freedom forum.

Wasserman Schultz said the focus should be on middle-class economics going forward that will build on a recovery under Obama that has produced 58 straight months of job growth, cut unemployment to the lowest rate since 2008, lowered gas prices to the lowest levels in 11 years, stabilized the housing market and has the auto industry thriving.

Rather than working together in a new Congress, Wasserman Schultz said King is among a GOP faction that is fighting immigration policy changes from the House 'backbench.” He further enhanced his extreme credentials, she said, when he put a 'deporter” tag on a so-called DREAMer - people in the United States illegally because they were brought here by their parents when they were children - who was invited to sit with the first lady at President Obama's recent State of the Union address.

By shining a spotlight on King's brand of conservatism and making it center stage, Wasserman Schultz said potential GOP presidential contenders were giving credibility to rhetoric that most Americans reject and find offensive.

'The views of Steve King and certainly the language he chooses to use is not representative of Iowans,” said Iowa Democratic Party chairwoman Andy McGuire, who joined her DNC counterpart at Saturday's new conference. 'Calling a ‘DREAMer' a ‘deporter' is not only unacceptable but makes Iowans who share this beautiful state with Steve King embarrassed to call him their representative.”

No one was fired Saturday when a developing field of 2016 GOP presidential prospects joined 'Celebrity Apprentice” host Donald Trump on stage at an ornate, nearly-century old theater in Des Moines' downtown district, but Wasserman Schultz said Saturday's event was scarier than any reality TV show because those can be turned off or fixed when something goes awry.

'It would feel surreal, which is what reality TV feels like, if it weren't so frighteningly real because these are all people who actually have their hands on the levers of power,” she told reporters. 'These are people that actually control policy.”