Courtesy of this morning’s Hill, I see:
It was prop time on the House floor Tuesday night when Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), making the case for building a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border, showed a miniature version of a border wall that he “designed.”He had mock sand representing the desert as well as fake construction panels as C-SPAN focused in on the unusual display.
But it got really interesting when King broke out the mock electrical wiring: “I also say we need to do a few other things on top of that wall, and one of them being to put a little bit of wire on top here to provide a disincentive for people to climb over the top.”
He added, “We could also electrify this wire with the kind of current that would not kill somebody, but it would be a discouragement for them to be fooling around with it. We do that with livestock all the time.”
King spokeswoman Summer Johnson disputed the notion that it was an immigrant-livestock comparison, saying, “He was comparing a fence to a fence — a border fence to an Iowa farm fence.”
The outspoken proponent of border security, however, did not mention an Iowa farm fence during his show-and-tell performance.
Now, I might be willing to give King the benefit of the doubt — if this wasn’t the same guy who said of Zarqawi, “There probably are not 72 virgins in the hell he’s at. And if there are, they probably all look like [White House correspondent] Helen Thomas,”… and the same guy who claimed that D.C. is more dangerous than Iraq.
As it is, I just have to interpret this as an immigrant-livestock comparison.
Update: Thinkprogress has the video.