HuffPo - Rep. Steve King (R) Grabs Cameraman After Questions On IRS Attack (VIDEO) [View All]

[TomCADem]

Here is another Republican getting a free pass for assaulting a reporter who asked him about the following statements with respect to the right wing terrorist attack on the IRS in Texas:

KING: []I think if we'd abolished the IRS back when I first advocated it, he wouldn't have a target for his airplane. And I'm still for abolishing the IRS, I've been for it for thirty years and I'm for a national sales tax. <...> It's sad the incident in Texas happened, but by the same token, it's an agency that is unnecessary and when the day comes when that is over and we abolish the IRS, it's going to be a happy day for America.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/16/steve-king-grabs-camerama_n_539967.html

Congressman Steve King (R-IA) grabbed Think Progress' Victor Zapanta Thursday at a tax day tea party rally and argued with the cameraman, after being asked to defend comments he made in February that seemed to justify a Texas man's suicide attack on the IRS.

Soon after Joe Stack, an angry software programmer, flew a plane into IRS offices in Austin, King called the Internal Revenue Service "unnecessary" and said that "it will be a happy day for all Americans" when the agency is abolished. Stack's suicide attack killed 68-year-old IRS employee Vernon Hunter.

The video, posted by Think Progress, shows Zapanta asking King to defend comments that "justified the murder of American federal employees." King, who appears to have misunderstood or ignored the basis of the question, responds by grabbing the Zapanta's arm and getting in the cameraman's face:

King: Are you accusing me of that? Are you accusing me of that? Turn that camera off. I'm not going to have those allegations. You accuse me of murder. That is despicable behavior.