As Republicans gathered in Des Moines Saturday to hear potential presidential candidates at an all-day forum, Democrats struck first, charging the event’s organizer is a dangerous extremist.
The Iowa Freedom Summit is “an extremist ring-kissing summit masquerading as a political forum,” charged Democratic Party Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
The Florida congresswoman spoke at a news conference across the street from the event. She was blasting Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, whose views on immigration have stirred controversy.
King has said that young people who entered the United States illegally as children were often drug mules with “calves the size of cantaloupes” from hauling marijuana. This week, he called a young woman who benefitted from the decision to allow certain immigrants to remain in country “deportable.”
Party officials have sharply criticized King.
Still, Wasserman Schultz maintained, potential presidential candidates should not be appearing at his forum. “It is time for Republicans to stop standing with extremeists like Steve King and start standing up to him,” she said.