Rep. Steve King (R-IA), who has spent most of his recent career defending himself against allegations that he is a white nationalist, told constituents at a town hall in Eagle Grove, Iowa, on Wednesday that he drank out of a toilet at a migrant detention facility to prove that criticisms of the conditions in those facilities are unfounded.
“I actually went into that cell where it was reported that they were advised they had to drink out of the toilet,” King reportedly said. “I took a drink out of there. And actually, pretty good!”
According to King, a video of the alleged toilet-drinking—which, he later clarified, was from a water fountain attached to the toilet’s tank, rather than out of the bowl itself—exists, but he elected not to share it because the subject of whether migrants in detention are forced to drink from toilets “just needs to go into the rearview mirror.” King called those charges, first made by fellow members of Congress after a visit to Border Patrol facilities in El Paso and Clint, Texas, “misinformation.”
