Here’s another one to file under “Bizarre Shit Politicians Lie about.”
Iowa Representative Steve King, recently politicking at a local town hall meeting, announced to the attendees that he had forced witnesses testifying at a congressional hearing to “confess” they were vegetarians. While this might seem a pretty odd thing to be bragging about in the first place, it gets even weirder when Think Progress reveals through a search of congressional testimony – it never happened.
So here’s what Steve King claims he did. At the town hall meeting, he announced:
KING: I’m here to tell you I’m a committed carnivore. I like meat. I sit on the Ag Committee and we had a hearing before the Ag Committee when we invited in the president of the Humane Society of the United States, HSUS, President Wayne Pacelle. And we had one or two other witnesses from the anti-meat crowd or anti-animal husbandry crowd. PETA was there and one other animal activist group. So we just asked them, under oath, “are you a vegetarian?” And they confessed they were vegetarians, all of them. Well there they are with an agenda for our diets.
Even before we discover the fact that he just completely made this crap up, let’s look at what this insane individual is actually saying. He touts exposing the evil vegetarians for what they are, and then proclaims that he discovered their secret agenda for American diets. There are many things that Dems and Republicans do equally well (or poorly for that matter), but only Republicans have this innate talent to equate anything they don’t like as “un-American,” “sinister,” or having a “secret agenda.” Republicans have even managed to take Michelle Obama’s mission to get kids to eat healthier and exercise more – a novel concept when you consider how goddamn fat we are – into some nefarious liberal scheme.
What does King think vegetarians are going to do with their “agenda for our diets”? Slap us around with some hummus ? Stick avocados up our asses? I really like how he takes credit for forcing those damn people – the president of the Humane Society – to admit that they’re vegetarians. What is Rep. King going to do next? Force Obama to admit he supports universal health care coverage? Here’s the video below:
I’m not even going to comment on the two rows of empty seats.
So while this is all well and good, the sad fact remains that Think Progress reviewed the hearing transcripts from the congressional hearing on animal welfare that Rep. King was alluding to – and lo and behold, King never actually asked anyone that question. The person who did ask? Democrat Steve Kagen from Wisconsin. Without any “Under oath” sanctimonious bullshit. So unless we interpret this “we” to mean the collective group of the Agriculture Committee, Rep. King completely made this up.
Even if we give him the benefit of the doubt, since Rep. King does brag about “we” (whether it’s the Ag Committee as a whole, him and his Republican buddies, or him and the seven little dwarves) asking “them” [these animal rights hellraisers] “Are you a vegetarian?”, there’s still a small problem when he continues to brag “they confessed they were vegetarians, all of them.” ALL OF THEM. “All” of “them” implies multiple individuals, last time I checked. Combined with the fact that PETA wasn’t even there, and only one person was asked, Rep. King is either an idiot or a liar. Facts are so inconvenient.
Source: ThinkProgress.Org
