Iowa Rep. Steve King attacked President
Barack Obama for calling NBA free agent Jason Collins to congratulate
him on coming out gay.
During a press conference late last
month, Obama told reporters that he spoke to Collins on the day he
became the U.S.'s first openly gay professional athlete.
“I told him I couldn't be prouder,”
Obama
said.
King, a conservative Republican opposed
to gay rights, chided Obama from the House floor, saying that he
wished the president would support NFL free agent Tim Tebow instead.
“I hear the president reducing or
lowering American values by his comments that take place in the
public and in the press,” King told colleagues. “Think about the
things he's chosen to take sides on. … Then we've got Tim Tebow who
will kneel and pray to God on the football field. Meanwhile, we have
a professional athlete that decides he's going to announce his
sexuality and he gets a personal call from the United States to
highlight the sexuality of a professional ballplayer. These are ways
that the culture gets undermined, where it gets divided. The people
over on this side take their followership from that kind of
leadership. One notch at a time, American civilization, American
culture, western civilization, western Judeo-Christiandom are
eroded.” (The video is embedded on this page. Visit
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