Let me take you back to another incident that really brought my attention to this. It was the opening night of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, and I did a panel with MSNBC. Chris Hayes is the moderator. They had April Ryan, a black commentator there, and a fellow by the name of Charlie Pierce. We had our little banter going back and forth, and maybe it wasn’t all that friendly but I didn’t think it was bad, and then at the end, Charlie Pierce said, “One could be an optimist and hope that this would be the last Republican convention where old white people have anything to say about it.” They were ready to cut away, and I couldn’t let that go. I said, “Charlie, that’s getting kind of tiring. I’m tired of hearing that. I’d invite you to explain to all of us what other sub-group has contributed more.”

And Chris Hayes leaned over and leered at me, thinking he had me trapped, and said, “More than white people?” And I said, “More than Western civilization itself defined by everywhere the footprint of Jesus Christ laid the foundation.” That is when they targeted me as a white supremacist and a white nationalist and decided to squeeze me out of Congress eventuall

What follows is an interview conducted by talk radio host James Edwards with former U.S. Representative Steve King (R-Iowa) about his 18 years in Congress and his book, Walking Through the Fire: My Fight for the Heart and Soul of America.

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James Edwards: You gave an interview with Tucker Carlson a few years ago that I consider to be the most enlightening explanation I have seen regarding how Washington operates. Let’s begin there. How does Congress actually work?

Congressman Steve King: Generally speaking, when freshmen arrive, they come in with ideals, objectives, and goals, believing they can achieve them. However, when I was first elected, I went through 11 days of what they called orientation, which consisted of about four days of actual orientation and seven days of indoctrination. During this time, they emphasized what you should never do, which helps them maintain control over you. Additionally, they insisted that you need to raise money because you can’t change the world if you don’t return next time. This kind of manipulation continues to build and intensify as time goes on.

I remember during the class election in 2010, I was walking over to an event one evening early in the session with a freshman. He mentioned, “Well, I got appointed to the Rules Committee, and I’m pretty happy about that assignment.” I replied, “Oh, you should be happy, I guess. You get to vote the way leadership tells you to on the Rules Committee.” It’s the speaker’s Rules Committee, and that’s how it has always been.

He responded, “Oh, no. They told me I could vote my conscience. I’m a free man. If I do well enough on the Rules Committee, I’ll be able to get on Ways and Means in a couple of years, and that’s my goal.”

Well, fast forward ten years, and he was still on the Rules Committee, voting the way the leadership wanted him to vote. That’s kind of what happens to a lot of them. My book covers what goes on in the inner workings of Congress and helps American citizens understand how devious the leadership can be, and why some representatives can’t allow the people’s voice to be heard in Washington.

Edwards: Your book is Walking Through Fire: My Fight for the Heart and Soul of America. In it, you write about so many key topics, such as political treason, media defamation, your relationship with President Trump, why Western civilization is superior, and the magnitude and impact of illegal immigration. Let’s hit that heavy topic. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines genocide as being the deliberate and systemic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group. Polls indicate that most Republican voters now believe a “Great Replacement” is occurring and oppose it. What is your opinion on the issue, and do you think that it rises to meet the definition of genocide?

King: I don’t know if I would quite say genocide because it’s not pushing for a massive death. It’s just pushing for lower birth rates among whites, which is one of the things that they like to see, and bringing in massive numbers of aliens of all kinds, whether they’re legal or illegal, from every culture — almost everything but white culture.

I’ve looked at this for a long time, and I’ve had my concerns. I’ve been down to the border repeatedly, doing the calculation. What happens when you bring in military-age men by the millions from cultures that are violent, and they don’t accept our Western civilization? If you bring in one person from another culture, you’re importing their culture, too. It’s axiomatic. In small numbers, you can still assimilate, but the greater the number, sooner or later they become an enclave, and they reconstruct their own country here in an enclave in the United States.

Others will say, “All cultures are equal.” But they are not. Western civilization is a superior civilization. The First World doesn’t exist outside of Western civilization. People want to destroy the First World because they despise what has been accomplished by it. They’ve created this racial envy. They’ve said that Western civilization is white civilization, therefore, it is evil. They say that babies born with white skin are inherently racist.

But what I don’t understand is why the people who built the greatest civilization in the history of the world would hand it over because of something called white guilt. I think we’re entitled to some gratitude for all that’s been built here and the comfort that’s been created for all the people in this country.

This is also happening on a large scale in Europe. I don’t know how many trips I’ve taken there, but I’ve made several specifically to walk among the hordes of people marching from one horizon to the other, primarily heading for Germany. I’ve ventured into the no-go zones in most of those countries, entering unprotected even when the State Department advised against it. I just walked in.

I’ve seen it. I’ve talked to them over there. It is strategic. It is being pushed by George Soros and others and the objective is to tear down Western civilization. They believe that the chaos they create will allow them to take total power, which would result in a Marxist-style government led by a few oligarchs living in gated communities, while chaos reigns everywhere else.

Edwards: I believe every group of people ought to be proud of their history, their ancestors, their heroes, their culture, their folkways, and their faith. But humanity does consist of unique groups who oftentimes have conflicting interests and putting them all in one living space often fosters discontent. That said, if you asked any member of Congress how they plan to help African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, or whomever, they would have an answer locked, loaded, and ready to go. But if you asked them what their plan is to help the white working class, you might be escorted out of that town hall by security. Why do you think that is? And do you think that the day will ever come when elected Republicans will mention the name of the group that actually votes for them by majority?

King: It seems like there is a movement in that direction. In fact, I know there’s a movement in that direction. There are several different groups in the country that are starting to form that way to defend the culture and civilization that built the United States of America and they’re less and less apologetic about it. But I can tell you the pressure in Washington is just so utterly high. If you looked at what they attacked me for – I was misquoted in the New York Times – but even that quote shouldn’t have been anything that gave anybody heartburn. They conflated white nationalism and white supremacy with Western civilization, and I asked, “How did those terms become pejorative?”

Why did I sit in the classroom as a boy hearing the merits of Western civilization just to see it become a derogatory term today? The last part didn’t get quoted in the paper. But I was defending Western civilization, and I had done that before. I had been quoted 276 times defending Western civilization going back to the year 2000 and had never even used the terms white nationalism or white supremacism.

Let me take you back to another incident that really brought my attention to this. It was the opening night of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, and I did a panel with MSNBC. Chris Hayes is the moderator. They had April Ryan, a black commentator there, and a fellow by the name of Charlie Pierce. We had our little banter going back and forth, and maybe it wasn’t all that friendly but I didn’t think it was bad, and then at the end, Charlie Pierce said, “One could be an optimist and hope that this would be the last Republican convention where old white people have anything to say about it.” They were ready to cut away, and I couldn’t let that go. I said, “Charlie, that’s getting kind of tiring. I’m tired of hearing that. I’d invite you to explain to all of us what other sub-group has contributed more.”

And Chris Hayes leaned over and leered at me, thinking he had me trapped, and said, “More than white people?” And I said, “More than Western civilization itself defined by everywhere the footprint of Jesus Christ laid the foundation.” That is when they targeted me as a white supremacist and a white nationalist and decided to squeeze me out of Congress eventually.

Edwards: You were the keynote speaker at a recent American Renaissance conference. Not very long ago, you would routinely see men like Jared Taylor, Peter Brimelow, and even yours truly, occasionally, on prime-time cable news programming. Those days have passed, but what concerns me is that conservatives too often give their enemies the power to determine those with whom they are allowed to speak and associate. At some point, public figures and elected officials will have to be able to speak with such advocates without fear of what so-called journalists think about it. I assume you agree.

King: I’ve had this attitude for a long time. I am a strong, strong advocate for freedom of speech, and when I see the freedom of speech of a person being curtailed because other people disagree with it, and then they organize to muzzle them, that’s not what made America. It has got to be a robust and competitive freedom of speech.

I think we need to lend a voice to the values and principles I expressed at that conference. It was supposed to be a 30-minute speech and 15 minutes of Q&A, but I got kind of carried away and didn’t step down for an hour and a half. But I was having fun, and they were paying attention. I don’t believe there is a reason why anyone of a different race or ethnicity can’t embrace Western civilization and succeed within the parameters that have been set up by it. Free enterprise, freedom of religion, speech, the press, assembly, the right to bear arms, all the way down the line. The pillars of American exceptionalism are accessible to everyone.

It is important to be able to tell people what you believe in, let them sort out what they hear, and then come to their own conclusions. Why should we fear speech? Why should we try to muzzle someone who says, “I am of European heritage, and look at all the things we brought with us over here. Look at the things we developed once we got here. What’s wrong with any of this?”

When you muzzle people like Peter Brimelow or Jared Taylor or Steve King or James Edwards, or anyone else out there, what you’re saying is you don’t have confidence that your ideology can compete.

Edwards: Though you were born in Iowa, you courageously defended Southern heritage while in Congress in a most remarkable way. Can you share that story with us?

King: This is another example of my commitment to the freedom of speech. I was walking to my office one day, and there was a debate taking place on the floor. I asked my staff, “What are they debating down there?” And they said, “Well, they’re debating amendments that Democrats are bringing to take the Confederate flag down somewhere.”

I listened to maybe 30 seconds of that, and once I realized what was going on, I ran out and went down the elevator to the tunnel. I ran through the tunnel over to the Capitol, up onto the floor, commanded the floor, and got recognized to speak. I was probably huffing and puffing through the whole five minutes, but I made the argument that the battle flag is about Southern pride. It’s not about advocating for slavery. If you Google “Southern pride,” by the time you get the barbecue out of the way, it’s all battle flags after that. If you Google “slavery” and get images, you get about seven or eight pages of black and white slaves. There’s not one battle flag in the whole thing. But now they’ve turned it into a verboten symbol, and they’re crushing Southern pride.

I also wanted to give credit to what happened at Appomattox when Lee and Grant negotiated the surrender. Lee asked Grant if those boys could keep their arms and their horses because they needed to go home and farm. And Grant said they could keep their horses. The officers got to keep their side arms. When the surrender was announced, a Union regiment fired off a volley in celebration, and Grant shut that down immediately. He said, “From this day forward, these rebels are our countrymen.” So, they got to keep their Southern pride, and their horses, and the officers kept their sidearms, but they also became countrymen again.

I made that argument on the House floor. I lost, but I put a Confederate flag on my desk as a symbol of freedom of speech and respect for Southern pride.

Edwards: On a somewhat similar note, you once shared a humorous story with me about an international trip you took with a former colleague, the late U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas). Do you remember the one?

King: I served with her for 18 years, 16 of those years on the Judiciary Committee, and I traveled the world with her, sitting across from her on long flights. Uganda comes to mind. I remember sitting on a bus with her as we were going through Uganda. Sheila was looking out the window, and she said, “These are my people.” I said, “Sheila, how do you know they’re your people?” Her answer was basically that they looked like she thinks her people look.

I razzed her because she was opposed to any type of wall, fence, or barbed wire. But, in Africa, the only place where you’re safe is inside your own compound with a wall, broken glass, and concertina wire on top. So, I pointed that out by saying, “Sheila, look at that. What do you think of that? Are all these people stupid? Why did they build these things? It looks like it must work, huh?” And after a few days of me ribbing her, she asked me if I would treat my little sister like this. I told her that I do, and she can stand up for herself. So that’s how that went.

Then, another time, we were in Morocco, where there are these 40-foot-high stone walls. We were talking underneath them, and I said, “Sheila, you see these walls? They were built by slaves. Did you know that?” She perked up. And I said, “Yeah, they were built by Christian slaves with Muslim masters. The Muslims would emasculate them so they didn’t have the equipment to urinate, much less reproduce, and when they there were done with them, they would just throw them off the wall or out of a boat and into the sea.” So, I’m telling her about these white, Christian slaves, and that needled her a little bit because she always viewed everything from the lens of racism. Very late in her career, she even put forth a bill that would have criminalized thought crimes. I think we all know what that means.

Edwards: You still have connections, power, and influence that most people do not have. What’s next for Steve King?

King: I call Victor Orban a gold standard of Western civilization. He knows what he’s doing, and he is methodically protecting the Western civilization within Hungary and influencing it outside of there. I met with him back in about 2015 or ‘16, and it was fascinating. But I also went through Europe, and I met with the patriotic party leaders that have sprung up across there, and I was laying the foundation to build an international organization to restore Western civilization around the world. We were very close to announcing it and launching it when the ambush came in on me and more or less destroyed my political capital and everything else I had going on. But we still need to do that.

The short version would be to pull in all the countries in Western Europe, and Eastern Europe that are part of Western civilization, and then, of course, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Let’s pull those countries together with at least one representative who advocates for Western civilization. That means principled, conservative patriots. Each one of these countries needs to have its own identity and language but also be willing to pull together under the larger umbrella of Western civilization. I wanted to put up an organization that’s founded and planted in Vienna where we turned the Turks back in 1529 and in 1683, committed to saving Western civilization, and then let it grow from there into universities and elsewhere. That’s what I’d like to do in the future. I think we’ve got a chance to get it done. It’s going to take some work and money.

To order former U.S. Rep. Steve King’s book, Walking Through the Fire: My Fight for the Heart and Soul of America, please visit www.steveking.com.

Left to right: Actress Mindy Robinson, former U.S. Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa), Mr. and Mrs. James Edwards, and former U.S. Senate nominee Lauren Witzke (R-Delaware) pose for a photo together after an event last year in Orlando, Florida.

When not interviewing newsmakers, James Edwards has often found himself in the spotlight as a commentator, including many national television appearances. Over the past 20 years, his radio work has been featured in hundreds of newspapers and magazines worldwide. Media Matters has listed Edwards as a “right-wing media fixture” and Hillary Clinton personally named him as an “extremist” who would shape our country.